Diogo Jota isn’t just one of the Premier League’s most dangerous forwards - he’s also a whizz at FIFA.
The Liverpool star celebrated his winner against Tottenham by sitting on the turf, pretending to hold a video game controller - he’s a huge FIFA enthusiast and even has his own eSports team, Diogo Jota eSports.
Speaking exclusively to FourFourTwo, Jota revealed that he can provide a seriously tough test to those on his team who play FIFA for a living - in 2021, he was briefly ranked world No.1 on FIFA’s Ultimate Team Champions leaderboard, after winning 30 matches in a row.
“I often get involved in competitions with the professional FIFA players, which happen once or twice a month, and I do win some games,” he said.
“I have an eSports team and sometimes I do better than my own players – not because they’re bad, but because I can actually compete with them! That feels really nice – when you can compete with people who only do that for a living.”
As a result, there isn’t a long list of Liverpool team-mates queuing up to try to beat him. “I don’t think there is, to be honest,” he said.
“I played Trent Alexander-Arnold in the final in the ePremier League Invitational during lockdown; I was representing Wolves back then and he was representing Liverpool, and I beat him. He doesn’t play that often nowadays, so I don’t think there’s a guy who could beat me!”
During his time with the Portuguese national team, has he ever taken on Cristiano Ronaldo at FIFA? “I don’t think Ronaldo is a fan of video games,” Jota chuckled. If CR7 thought there was a chance of defeat, the chances are he’d probably avoid playing at all. “Yeah, exactly!” Jota smiled. “He’s very competitive.”
Read the full interview with Jota in the new issue of FourFourTwo, in shops now and available to buy online HERE
Jota wears the new adidas X Speedportal boots, part of the Heatspawn Pack, which also includes the Predator and Copa boots, available to buy HERE
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Meanwhile, Diogo Jota has told FFT that Liverpool can win the title in 2024.
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