Roberto Martinez admits Celtic attacker Jota is very much on his Portugal radar.
The 24-year-old has played at every youth level for his national team but has yet to earn a full call-up to the Portuguese A-squad.
Jota has enjoyed a stellar season under Ange Postecoglou in Glasgow, netting 14 goals and notching 11 assists in 39 appearances.
It was no surprise that the Hoops winger was named in Portugal’s provisional 55-man World Cup squad, prior to Martinez’s time in charge, but did not make the final cut.
The ex-Belgium boss has revealed how impressed he’s been with Jota, although he warned him that he’s up against some stiff competition for places.
Asked if he was keeping tabs on Jota, Martinez opened up: “Absolutely. I think obviously Jota is a player that is very important for the national team in terms of the qualities that he has. He is a player that has this natural knack of beating players in a one vs one situation.
“So, he's a player that since I arrived in January, as you can imagine, there's been a lot of information. I tried to follow as many players, in fact, all the players, and clearly, Jota is one of them.
“What I would say is that his evolution has been very impressive. I would say that the last four months especially he is growing into a very mature role at his club. He's always involved in the big moments, and that's important.
“The stats that we have from him, they are very impressive, not just in the Scottish league, but in the Champions League. When you’re looking at measuring a player in that natural gift of taking players on it's very interesting to see it at different levels.
“It's quite interesting that Jota actually has probably a bigger percentage in the Champions League than what he has in the Premiership, and that's something that we always follow very closely.
“Then the other aspect is obviously there's a lot of competition for places in that role, we have players that have been playing big games for their clubs for a long time now.
“But he is very much a player that we appreciate what he can bring to the national team and we appreciate the form he is in.”
Roberto Martinez spoke during his guest appearance at the 26th annual Beatson Cancer Charity’s Sporting Dinner in Glasgow. A total of £138,643.43 was raised. You can support the charity HERE.
