Who is Forest’s ‘Portuguese Grealish’?

Bruno Fernandes scored and was running the show alongside Bernardo Silva during Portugal’s friendly against Sweden in March, but the roar of the night in Guimaraes came in the 63rd minute when the fourth official’s board showed number 11 was coming on.

At that moment, thousands stood to applaud the entrance of Jota Silva, a local hero for home side Vitoria de Guimaraes.

The winger was making his international debut for Portugal in front of 30,000 fans and could not ignore the butterflies in his stomach.

A couple of seasons earlier, he says, he was yet to play in front of “more than 300 people”.

“His journey is an example to everyone,” Portugal boss Roberto Martinez said after the 5-2 victory against the Swedes.

It certainly has not been the most straightforward journey for Jota.

At the age of 19, Jota was still competing in the lower echelons of Portuguese football, earning 150 euros a month – enough, according to him, “for the gas”.

But now, having just turned 25, things look very different. This summer, Jota completed an improbable rise from semi-amateur level to the Premier League when he arrived at Nottingham Forest.

The Vitoria sensation is not done defying the odds though.

“Five years ago, I could never have imagined that he would be playing for Portugal, signing for a historic club like Forest and moving to the Premier League,” one of his earliest mentors, Joao Ferreira, who coached him at SC Espinho, told BBC Sport.

“We all knew he would become a professional footballer, but how far would he go? That was impossible to predict.”

Having been dubbed the ‘Portuguese Jack Grealish’ because of his likeness to the Manchester City star, Jota will be keen to prove that there are more similarities between them than their haircut.

He adopted the slicked-back style – with a hairband – during the Covid-19 lockdown when he was unable to have his locks cut and has kept it since.

“I like him [Grealish] a lot so it’s fantastic for me to be compared to him. People say we look alike, especially because of the haircut, but, as a player, I believe I’m slightly better than him,” Jota said with a chuckle during an interview with Dezanove22, Vitoria’s official podcast, last year.

Originally a right-back who could also play on the left, Jota spent much of his formative time with Portuguese minnows Sousense flying down the flanks.

Such was his attacking threat, he ended up being converted into a striker and then into a winger.

Coming from outside one of the country’s biggest academies to make it as an elite professional was an obviously difficult challenge.

Liverpool’s Diogo Jota and Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes are among the few exceptions to have done it.

The new Forest signing has had to take the long road, overcoming a series of setbacks growing up, including having his foot broken and being released by Pacos de Ferreira after a brief spell.

But all these experiences have moulded the character of a player who gets to the pitch with so much hunger that he has made biting his tongue while running with the ball his trademark back home.

“We usually played every Sunday, so our Monday training sessions were more relaxed for those who had been involved in the game and the same applied to the Saturday ones, but Jota, no, he worked every single day as if it were Wednesday,” Ferreira recalled.

“It didn’t matter to him that we had a match the following day. He would throw his head where others would place their feet.

“When we brought him from Sousense to Espinho, that was his first time competing in a professional league, so we planned to use him as a rotation player at first.

“But he made such an impact that it quickly became clear that he wouldn’t be around long.”

Jota was soon on the move again – firstly to Leixoes, then to Casa Pia and onwards to Vitoria.

It was in the domestic second division with Casa Pia that the comparisons with Grealish started and never stopped, with Bernardo Silva even taking a selfie with Jota during a recent national team camp to send to his City team-mate.

“Despite all that, I would say they are different players,” Ferreira said.

“Grealish is a bit more of a constructor while Jota is a finisher, covers more the last 20 metres of the pitch and enjoys playing closer to the goal.

“He has improved a lot over the past season and can be involved in the game in different areas. He’s much more complete now.

“Although he’s more used as a winger, I still believe his best position is as a striker – either operating as a target man or as a second forward.

“He has that killer instinct in the box and also a great aerial ability. However, because he’s not very tall [he is 1.79m], other coaches prefer to have him wide.”

Jota left Vitoria with 20 goals and 11 assists in 83 games – and also as a club idol.

Forest will be hoping he can have the same impact under Nuno Espirito Santo this season.