Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers backed Jota to be an even bigger success second time round after the Portuguese winger marked his “emotional” return with a goal in a 3-1 win at Motherwell.
The 65th-minute substitute appeared to be in tears shortly after converting a pass from Daizen Maeda to round off the William Hill Premiership victory in the closing seconds and celebrating in front of the visiting fans.
The 25-year-old left Celtic 18 months ago for an ill-fated spell in Saudi Arabia before failing to establish himself in the Rennes starting line-up, but Rodgers believes he will be stronger for the experience.
“He was a superstar when he was here the first time and it’s been a challenge for him, obviously, leaving, but he couldn’t have written that any better,” Rodgers said.
“He’s a wonderful player, he obviously has a way to go in terms of his fitness, but he’s someone who can beat a man. He doesn’t just look like a good player, he is a good player. He can beat a man, he’s very effective.
“Once he gets up to fitness in terms of how I want him to press the game, he’s going to be a fantastic player again.”
Rodgers added: “He’s emotional. The journey that he’s been on since being here and then leaving, just not having that feeling.
“It’s a really, really difficult club when you come away from it, especially when you’re a player like him, when you’re adored to that level that he was when he was here the first time. He probably thought he was never going to feel that again.
“So, to come back and get the goal, and obviously the support, they idolise him. Just like for every player, you want to feel wanted, appreciated, and he knows he has that here.
“He knows the training ground is an internal culture which is based around respect. He has that, and obviously the supporters love him.
“He’s had the sample now of two moves that haven’t quite worked out. He also has probably a more realistic feeling of the actual size of the club, and what Celtic can give him.
“So, my feeling is that he’ll come back even hungrier and be even better than he was the first time. Why? Because he knows what the other side looks like. And he probably will recognise and realise how lucky he is at a club like this here.”
Jota’s goal came after some sustained Celtic pressure but Motherwell were briefly level when Luke Armstrong cancelled out Maeda’s first-minute opener, before Adam Idah restored the visitors’ lead.
Well caretaker manager Stephen Frail was delighted with his players’ effort after a difficult week that started with the shock resignation of manager Stuart Kettlewell.
“Losing a goal so early in any game is tough, especially against a team with the quality of Celtic,” he said. “You kind of fear the worst, I think it was 50 seconds or something.
“But they dug in, they battled, managed to get a goal back in the game, caused them a couple of problems in the first half with the ball, not as much in the second half as we would have liked.
“But the actual work-rate, desire, shape, whatever it was, without the ball, I thought it was really good and something for us to build on.”
Frail was delighted with Armstrong, who finished first time on his first start since joining on loan from Carlisle.
“His work-rate was phenomenal,” he said. “He’s a bustling, probably old-fashioned striker.
“And to give that level of performance, work-rate… there was a couple of times we were thinking we need to take him off, but he just kept going. And I think that was shown throughout the team.”
