Despite his untimely passing, the legacy and memory of Diogo Jota will live on through Liverpool Football Club and those associated with it…
I CAN’T stop thinking about his parents.
Football’s one thing and our place in his life another, but my mind flies to the moment when they were told of not just the loss of one son, but two. I can’t get my head around that. It’s too much.
And his song has been rolling around my skull on a loop for three straight days. I constantly edit ‘oh, his name is Diogo’ to ‘was Diogo’ and then change it back immediately. It is Diogo. He’ll always be an ‘is’ and never a ‘was’. He’ll always be here, be present.
It’s important to remember the 28 years more than his final day. He’ll be defined by what he achieved rather than how he left. That Diogo Jota is immortal.
There’s the footballer and there’s the man – both were exceptional.
His goal in the FA Cup game at the City Ground was my personal football highlight, but his jog over to the bench to collect Luis Diaz’s shirt to show his support for his family tells us more about him than any goal. A humane reaction to his mate.
And it seemed typical of him. Andrew Robertson’s Instagram post remembered him as we never could. That was particularly touching. It spoke of happier days, about the most British foreign player he’d ever met, the Portuguese who loved horse racing. Little touches like that.
That’s how Diogo Jota lives in my head – more than a man who cut inside and scored for LFC.
I just wish I could stop thinking about his poor family. His new wife and three kids. His brother and his brother’s family and friends. Unimaginable.
It’s impossible to tell how this is affecting the club. Not just the first team and the coaching staff, but the people who saw him every day around the training camp.
Football is irrelevant, I mean absolutely irrelevant, but the wellbeing of those who work for the club is paramount. I hope they’re getting the help and support they’ll undoubtedly need, but what do you do in these circumstances? How do you plan for this?
The only thing we can do is come together and concentrate on what’s important. Support, togetherness. We can do that.
The Anfield tribute is beautiful, perfect. It’s fitting to remember our lad.
Countless fans will wear his shirt throughout next season. I’d like to think that they could sell his shirt at a reduced price to encourage that.
I’d say that would keep his memory alive, but it doesn’t really need it. He’ll always be alive to us. He’ll always be 28 in our hearts. He’ll always be lifting that trophy, those trophies. He’ll always wear the number 20. He always did lead us to victory.
It’s so strange that the untimely death of someone we didn’t know can affect us so much, but this team has brought the fans to them in a unique way. We don’t know them, but we sort of do. It makes it glorious, but it also makes times like this all the harder.
We’ve lost one of our mates, but we’ll always have him.
Oh, his name is Diogo.
Always ‘is’.
