Jota’s exit from Celtic to Al-Ittihad is one of the biggest deals ever completed in Scottish football and makes the Portuguese winger one of the highest-paid exports from the Premiership in history.
Sky Sports report that the Bhoys will receive £25m from the Saudi Pro League side, equalling Kieran Tierney’s record exit to Arsenal back in 2019.
Other outlets have suggested that he will earn as much as £192,000 a week, tax-free, to feature for Al-Ittihad alongside Karim Benzema and N’Golo Kante.
Celtic’s payout to Benfica for Jota
But what of the money Celtic are now due Benfica? The Lisbon side entered a hefty 30% sell-on clause into the deal which resulted in Jota’s move to Glasgow in the first place.
Many outlets, including ourselves, have assumed that this 30% would be on the profit over and above the money Celtic paid to the Portuguese side. That’s the norm in most football deals. However, it seems that 30% is on the entire £25m.
Anthony Joseph’s Sky Sports report clarifies that Benfica are in fact due £7.5m for the sale. That takes the net income on the deal for the Bhoys to £17.5m.
That’s still a large chunk of profit on the reported £6.5m it took to turn his loan into a permanent switch – £11m in total. Given the terms of the initial move, it was also going to be difficult for the Bhoys to realise much more than that from his eventual sale.
We got two brilliant seasons out of Jota and his contribution won’t be forgotten in a hurry. He was very popular. It’s never ideal to see popular players walk out of the door.
In a perfect world, we may well have got another season out of the player and enjoyed his skills for a bit longer. But he was never going to be a talent that stays here forever and standing in the way of him earning an eye-watering income wouldn’t have been feasible, realistically.
Celtic have completed good business here. Now it’s about finding a quality replacement and reinvesting this money back into Brendan Rodgers’ squad.
In other news, Celtic fans get an official first glimpse of more new Adidas gear.
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