James Milner dedicates Brighton goal to former Liverpool team-mate Diogo Jota
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. At the beginning of this season, Milner 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.