The incredible Jota Celtic feat that isn’t quite as rare as you may think

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It’s fair to say that Jota bowed out in style at Celtic.

The Portuguese winger’s mega-money move to Saudi Arabia was confirmed on Monday night (Celtic), after two great seasons in Glasgow.

In that time, Jota netted 27 goals and won five domestic trophies at Celtic. They really were glorious days.

His final act in a Hoops shirt was to net our third goal in the Scottish Cup final victory over Inverness Caledonian Thistle a month ago.

The clincher was struck in the 91st minute of the match, with Jota being replaced by James Forrest before play had resumed.

Put simply, he netted a goal with what turned out to be his very last touch in a Celtic shirt.

It’s a pretty incredible feat when you think about it. The final time we ever saw Jota kick the ball, he was sending it in to the net and securing another treble for the club.

When reports of the attacker moving on first emerged, I posed the question on Twitter of whether the winger was the first player in our history to net that achievement.

It quickly became clear that he wasn’t even the first in 2023. Step up Giorgos Giakoumakis.

In the same Hampden net five months earlier, the Greek forward struck in the 95th minute of our League Cup semi-final victory over Kilmarnock.

Giakoumakis didn’t touch the ball again in that match, and it turned out to be his final outing for the club.

While netting with your very last touch seems a pretty rare event, two players having achieved it in 2023 suggests it probably has happened multiple times in the past.

Under my tweet there were multiple shouts for the late Frank McGarvey. He netted in the 84th minute in his final game for Celtic — the 1985 Scottish Cup final — but he did touch the ball a couple of times after that.

Kenny Miller struck in the 92nd minute of his final game for Celtic, but then touched the ball again at Pittodrie.

Jean-Joel Perrier-Doumbe was heavily mentioned, but he played many more matches for Celtic after his Scottish Cup final winning goal.

Charlie Nicholas, Jack Aitchison and Scott Sinclair were some of the other shouts that were incorrect.

However, it does seem like there have been two other players to manage the feat in recent times.

Bahrudin Atajić seems like he did it in a game against Motherwell in 2013, although there is no evidence of the final few minutes of that clash.

Massimo Donati’s wonder-strike against Arsenal at the Emirates certainly seems to have been his final touch for the club.

So not bad company to be in at all.

In other news, Celtic will not be playing any matches in South Korea this summe