27-year-old Liverpool player says he feels ‘properly at home’ at Anfield

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Although Liverpool have relatively few local players on their books these days, they have a huge number of ‘adopted Scousers.’

Over the years, certain players coming from abroad have taken on this tag more than others. Kostas Tsimikas for example has famously labelled himself as ‘the Greek Scouser’ due to his affiliation with the club and the city they hail from.

But others’ love for Liverpool creeps up slowly and less publicly. One of those appears to be a man who arrived at the same time as Tsimikas – Diogo Jota.

Jota has become a huge fan favourite since his signing from Wolves in 2020. His goal-scoring was recently described as being ‘ridiculous’ by Micah Richards, and that has certainly helped. And speaking to liverpoolfc.com yesterday, the 27-year-old admitted that the feeling is very much mutual. Diogo feels ‘properly at home’ at Liverpool.

“For sure I’m not the same player that stepped in the door for the first time three or four years ago almost,” he says.

“I think I’m better now, I understand the game better, I feel like I’m properly at home and every time I step on the pitch I know what it means to these fans and what I have to do to help the team win football games, and that in the end is what everyone wants.”

Jota feeling at home on Merseyside

It’s always great to hear whenever players who have no prior affiliation to Liverpool are bitten by the Reds bug.

Of course, near enough every player feels something towards the club they play for. Football is an emotional sport and it would be impossible not to become attached, at least on a professional level.

But you can really feel when a player goes beyond that and truly makes a team his home.

Jota may not be the first name that springs to mind in that regard in this current Liverpool side. But his love for the club is very evident indeed.

Difficult times can often reinforce that love and the Portugal international has had some hardship since joining in 2020.

He went a whole calendar year without scoring recently and has had his share of injury setbacks. One big blow came in 2022 when Jota was forced to miss the World Cup after being injured against Manchester City.

Jurgen Klopp hailed his player’s resilience back then and has often praised Liverpool’s No.20 in the time since. The manager is a big fan.

As a result, we envisage that Diogo will have many more years to become further acquainted with his adopted home. Now 27, he’s one of the more senior members of the team. We expect he’ll grow into that role and continue to help more new arrivals settle in and teach them just what it means to play for this club.