They say you are never too far away from an Irish bar. In Milan, a 4km walk from the San Siro will bring you to Mulligans Pub.
That is where a group of Liverpool supporters headed to after their team’s 2-1 victory over AC Milan on December 7. They had just watched Divock Origi score the winner which helped wrap up a sixth Champions League group stage win.
It was in that memorabilia-stacked whiskey bar in central Milan where Diogo Jota’s new song first took off.
The Athletic has tracked down the group of fans who started the chant to discuss the Kop’s latest hit.
“Jota needed a song and we’ve been trying to make one but nothing ever got going,” explains one of the fans involved. While their song has found fame, they wish to remain anonymous. “Then before Milan, our mate sent one into the group chat. Everyone got it going in a bar in Milan and it took off.
“After that it was on the way to Spurs when a video off our coach went a bit viral. Then at the two Leicester games, home and away, you could quietly hear it. At Chelsea there was a little bit of it and then it was at Arsenal where the away end started singing it.”
Jota scored twice at the Emirates to book Liverpool’s place in the League Cup final against Chelsea. The song, sung on repeat to the tune of Bad Moon Rising by Creedence Clearwater Revival from the away end, defined the night.
“Oh, he wears the number 20. He will take us to victory.
“And when he’s running down the left wing, he’ll cut inside and score for LFC.
“He’s a lad from Portugal, better than Figo don’t you know. Oh, his name is Diogo!”
There is a feeling it could define the season.
🎶 Ohhh, he wears the number 2⃣0⃣, he will take us to victory… 🎶@DiogoJota18 ❤️ pic.twitter.com/o99SkQQFMl
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) January 21, 2022
“There always seems to be a song when we go on a run,” the fan adds, alluding to recent seasons when chants like “Allez, Allez, Allez” helped underpin runs to consecutive Champions League finals in 2018 and 2019 as well as Premier League title battles.
Jota’s song feels like the next big one after chants for Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk, Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino, Thiago and others have provided the background music to Jurgen Klopp’s time at the club.
Thiago, who signed for Liverpool in the same 24 hours as Jota in September 2020, had a song to the tune of Cuba by The Gibson Brothers waiting for him as he landed in Liverpool from Munich.
Jota, whose arrival from Wolverhampton Wanderers took most by surprise, was made to wait for a Kop hymn of his own. But the Portuguese has a song now and it feels like a just reward for the 27 goals he has scored in 58 appearances.
This season he has scored 14 times in 28 appearances in all competitions. That equates to a goal every other game. It is also one goal more than he managed in the 30 appearances he made in his debut season.
The inspiration behind Jota’s song comes from Argentina. On the day of the 2014 World Cup final, Argentina fans were filmed in a shopping mall in Porto Alegre singing “Brasil, decime que se siente” (Brazil, tell me how it feels). Argentina had reached the final, whereas Brazil had been humiliated 7-1 by Germany in the semi-finals.
“Everyone liked that tune from the Argentina fans in the food court, so, we went with that tune and all started throwing lyrics about,” another fan, credited by his mates with creating the chant but is reluctant to lay claim to it, says.
Its lyrics, which were used by Argentina fans throughout the tournament, translate as follows: “Brazil, tell me how it feels, to have your Dad at home (to be bossed about in your own back yard).
“It’s sure that even though years go by, we will never forget, that El Diego ‘did’ you (with a trick). El Cani (Claudio Caniggia) stuck the needle in (reference to late winner against Brazil at Italia 90).
“You’ve been crying ever since Italy, up until today. You’re going to see Messi. He’s going to bring us the cup home. Maradona is greater than Pele.”
It was an Argentine, Ignacio Harraca, who thought up the anthem while in the shower. From there it was chanted out across Brazil in the run-up to the 2014 final where Germany defeated Argentina. Since then it has gone on to be adapted by fans of clubs across Harraca’s homeland and beyond.
This is not the first time Liverpool fans have used it as a backboard beat either.
The song now frames Jota as its protagonist, but during Brendan Rodgers’s days in charge of Liverpool it placed former assistant manager Colin Pascoe at its heart.
“Oh his name is Colin Pascoe, he puts the cones out for the team.
“He wears shorts when it is f***ing freezing but we don’t care ’cause his legs are a dream.”
The song was sung mostly in jest and was never latched onto with the fervour needed to get a chant off in away day coaches, pubs near the ground and into the stands on a regular basis.
Jota’s song has almost accomplished this having made its way from that Irish bar in Italy to away ends at Arsenal and Crystal Palace. The next stop is Anfield where it is yet to be belted out on repeat as it was at Selhurst Park during Liverpool’s recent 3-1 victory.
That will likely happen when Cardiff City visit in the FA Cup fourth round on February 6. Even if Jota is rested he should be hearing his name ring out around the stadium in the same way it already does for several of his colleagues.
Fans will return to the San Siro on February 16 as Liverpool meet Inter Milan in the last-16 of the Champions League. The Jota song will accompany them.
(Photo: Marc Atkins/Getty Images)
