James Milner celebrated his first Premier League goal in six years with a tribute to former Liverpool team-mate Diogo Jota as the veteran midfielder equalised for Brighton against Manchester City.
The 39-year-old, who had come on as a second-half substitute, converted his penalty past City goalkeeper James Trafford before sitting on the turf and replicating Jota’s trademark “video game” celebration.
Jota and his brother Andre Silva died in a car crash in July. Milner attended Jota’s funeral in Portugal and, at the beginning of this season, changed his shirt number at Brighton from 6 to 20, the number Jota wore at Liverpool, and which has now been retired by the club.
He explained earlier this season: “Once I heard Carlos [Baleba] was looking to change his number and 20 was available, I wanted to do it as a mark of respect and to obviously pay tribute to Diogo Jota.
“He was an amazing player, who I was fortunate to play with, and he was a great friend as well. It will be a great honour to wear his number in the Premier League this year.”
Milner’s penalty was his first goal for Brighton and his first since scoring for Liverpool in the 4-0 Boxing Day win over Leicester in 2019, with the former Premier League champion and England international equalising against City, one of his former teams.
He became the oldest penalty scorer in Premier League history, and the second-oldest overall at the age of 39 years and 239 days. Teddy Sherringham holds the record after scoring for West Ham aged 40 years and 268 days in 2006.
Milner is also the second-youngest scorer in the Premier League history, having netted his first for Leeds against Sunderland at the age of 16 years and 356 days in December 2002.
