Diogo Jota has explained how Cristiano Ronaldo’s guidance ended his protracted goalless streak for Liverpool.
In the crushing 6-1 victory at Leeds United on Monday night, Jota scored for the Reds for the first time in more than a year.
The 26-year-old has had trouble scoring after suffering significant injuries twice in the past 12 months that kept him out of action.
Jota remembered an analogy offered by Ronaldo, a teammate from Portugal, after breaking his duck.
Earlier in his long career, the Manchester United and Real Madrid icon went 16 months without scoring for the Portuguese national team.
At the 2010 World Cup, Ronaldo said: “Goals, as a football legend once told me, are like ketchup.”
He later snapped that streak by scoring in a 7-0 victory over North Korea.
“Sometimes as much as you try, they don’t come out, and when they come, many come all at same time.”
Jota never forgot those words from Ronaldo, who went on to score a record-breaking 122 goals for his country, and he is now hopeful Liverpool will be the starting point for a stream of goals.
The former Wolves attacker told Sky Sports following the decisive victory at Elland Road, “That’s one of the sentences Ronaldo said and it really stuck in my mind all these years.”
“I think football is unpredictable, and these are the things we like in this football game. Things can change very quick.”
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