The terrible tragedy of a life cut short, of a father taken away from young children, of a husband killed days after his wedding to his childhood sweetheart, of a champion torn away, stunned Liverpool Football Club on Thursday morning.
Diogo Jota was only 28-years-old. He was a modest, thoughtful man and a wonderfully intelligent footballer who played the game with joy and elan and an utter absence of spite that made him stand out amid the hurly-burly of the modern game.
As a forward who did so much to help Liverpool regain their position as the best team in English football and scored the first goal of the Arne Slot era at the beginning of last season, he will always be regarded as one of Liverpool’s favourite sons.
For Liverpool’s supporters, the loss will be hard to bear. They are all their sons, these boys, these gilded young men who represent the pride of a community and the hope of youth and possibility.
That is one of things that cuts so deep about Jota’s death in a car crash: in times of tragedy in their own lives, supporters look to their club and their manager and players like Jota for strength and support.
When a relative dies, perhaps they will lay flowers for them at the Shankly Gates or their name will be read out at Anfield or the fans will stand at an appointed minute of a game to applaud a life that has been taken away.
Liverpool star Diogo Jota’s death on Thursday, at the age of 28, has shaken the football world
Liverpool have said they are ‘devastated’ in an emotional tribute to their player Diogo Jota after he died in a tragic car accident at the age of 28
Several Liverpool fans gathered at Anfield on Thursday morning to lay flowers and messages in honour of Jota, as the world of football fell into mourning
A football club is a family. It is a support system as well as a team that kicks a ball around a pitch. And, because of that, a player like Diogo Jota, a team player, a player who understood his responsibilities, was a community leader, too.
It was part of his role as a player at an institution as powerful and emotive as Liverpool Football Club is in it city. It is why, after the Hillsborough Tragedy in 1989, Kenny Dalglish, the Liverpool manager, and his players, attended so many of the funerals of the supporters who were killed.
And now the roles have changed. Now, one of the players has been taken away. Now the players are the ones who will need the support of the fans in a moment that will have shocked them to their core and plunged the club into mourning.
Liverpool is a club that has had to deal with more tragedy in its history than any club should have to carry and the loss of Diogo Jota is another unbearably cruel blow to England’s champions.
As they prepare for a new season, a rhythm of football life that always feels like a time of excitement and rebirth, death has struck right at their heart of the team and torn away a man who was like a brother to some of the players, not just a team-mate.
There had been so much anticipation about the new season, too. The last few weeks have been filled with happiness at news of a slew of fresh arrivals and particularly the record signing of Bayer Leverkusen’s Germany international Florian Wirtz.
Everything seemed set fair. After the joy of last season’s title triumph, the club was awash with optimism and hope and the thrill of the new. All that has gone now. In its place is a club in mourning.
Perhaps we have got a little better in recent years at realising that the money modern footballers earn does not always protect them from the pressures and strains of ordinary life.
Jota’s death is another unbearably cruel blow to England’s champions – he was a modest, thoughtful man and a wonderfully intelligent footballer who played the game with joy and elan
Jota’s death tragically came just two weeks after he married his childhood sweetheart and mother of his three children, Rute Cardoso, in Porto
‘RIP Diogo’: Supporters pay their respects by laying bouquets of flowers outside Anfield
An image of Jota celebrating with team-mate Kostas Tsimikas on a panel outside Anfield
But there is still a temptation to see players like Jota as invincible, somehow. Sure, they get football-related injuries but beyond that, the idea that a tragedy like this could befall them is almost unthinkable.
They exist in our minds as inseparable from the club. Even the idea that Jota should have been killed with his brother, Andre Silva, in a car crash on a road in Spain jars. It is a reminder he had a life outside football. He was a man, a father, a husband, a brother, a son. He was all those things before he was the footballer we came to know.
He was a lovely player to watch. Signed by Jurgen Klopp from Wolves, he was intelligent enough that he could deputise for any of Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane and Mo Salah in Liverpool’s famous forward trident.
He was sharp enough and astute enough to be a steady contributor of fine goals and if he struggled to establish himself in the first choice starting line-up, he was crucial to the squad in so many of Liverpool’s league campaigns.
He scored that first goal under Slot after 60 minutes of Liverpool’s 2-0 over Ipswich Town at Portman Road and made 26 league appearances in a campaign where Liverpool marched impressively to a resounding title triumph. It was Jota’s first league winners’ medal.
Jota may not have been an automatic starter but he always made an impact when he played
His last competitive match saw him end it as a champion again – winning the Nations League with Portugal last month
He was also an established international with Portugal, of course, and won the Nations League twice with his country. The President of the Portuguese Football Federation, Pedro Proenca, made a moving tribute to him on Thursday morning that hinted at his wider impact as a man and a player.
‘The Portuguese Football Federation and all of Portuguese football are completely devastated by the death of Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva, this early morning, in Spain,’ Proenca said.
‘Much more than an amazing player, with almost 50 international appearances for the national team, Diogo Jota was an extraordinary person, someone with an infectious joy and a reference in the community itself.’
His dignity, his modesty and his joy in the game he played, made him a reference in the Liverpool community, too. His loss is a devastating blow.
