RIP Diogo Jota - (1996-2025)
Thank you for the memories...
The Portuguese professional football player, Diogo Jota died in a car crash in Spain on the morning of Thursday, 3rd July 2025. He was just 28 years of age. His brother Andre Silva [below], who also played football professionally, was with him in the car and also lost his life. He was just 25.
Even more tragically, Diogo had married his childhood sweetheart just 11 days prior to the accident. They had been together for over a decade. He leaves behind his new bride and their three young children and this week, his parents buried two sons. I cannot imagine that kind of pain. I dare not try. All my heart goes out to the whole family.
The death of a celebrity is always sad, but normally there is a level of disconnect with it to us normal folk. We don’t know them personally, so the sadness is less pronounced and slightly removed. When they are as young as the Jota brothers were however, there is the added sense of shock, given that they had so much life to look forward to that has been cruelly taken away. Still, there is often that disconnect regardless. We know of celebrities, but we don’t know them. Our connection to them is para-social.
But Diogo Jota’s death hit me hard because of the memories that wonderful man gave to me, my son and all of his many fans around the world. You see, for my sins, I am a Liverpool FC fan, the team that Diogo Jota played for at the time of his death. My son also is a LFC supporter and grew up watching Jota play for both Liverpool and his previous team Wolves.
I am not from Liverpool, although I do have a connection to both the city and the football club via my grandfather. That makes me a ‘plastic fan’ to some. A ‘wool’, in regional vernacular. I can live with that.
I fell in love with the club because of the friends I was hanging around with as a young man who were Liverpool fans. They hated Manchester United as much as I did which became a shared bond between us. My entire childhood had been filled with the constant soundtrack of my insufferable older brother banging on about how much he loved Manchester United all the time. (Unlike Liverpool, there is no familial connection to Manchester in my lineage. He just supported them because they won all the time like every other United fan does). I found it tiresome and disingenuous and thus wanted nothing to do with football at all for years.
But over the years that I hung out around my Scouse mates, watching Liverpool matches became a something of a communal tradition, then a habit and eventually a compulsion. Football for me wasn’t love at first sight, rather a slow build that formed a deep and lasting connection. Then, in 2009, I watched Liverpool batter Manchester United 4-1 with my friends in a pub packed with cheering Liverpool fans and heartbroken Manchester United fans, and I was hooked. The rivalry, the revelry, the passion. I couldn’t believe I had missed out on it all my whole life up to that point.
Instead of playing negative, bland and boring football like Manchester United always did, Liverpool went for the jugular in that game. They played honestly and with integrity. Attacking relentlessly and entertaining everyone who watched. They played football ‘the right way’ in my eyes and they became my club from that very moment.
After that point, Liverpool were awful for about a decade before Jurgen Klopp turned up and transformed them back into being the juggernauts that they are now. And the German manager brought back all that great attacking flare and the entertainment factor.
And as one of his signings, Diogo Jota embodied all of that stuff. A born goal scorer. An attacking force. A cunning, sharp and exciting forward.
He helped Liverpool win their 20th league title last season with his goal contributions, opening the account for the season in Game Week 1 with a goal against Ipswich Town. He scored the crucial winner in the Merseyside Derby against city rivals Everton late in the season, which is always a tough game for Liverpool.
All in all, he made 182 first team appearances for Liverpool, scoring 65 goals and helped the team win both the FA Cup and League Cup in 2022 as well as the Premier League last season.
Their 20th title, for the man who wore the jersey marked number 20. Poetic. The club will retire that shirt now, immortalising that number forever as Diogo’s number and no-one else’s.
There are so many amazing Diogo Jota moments I could mention that stick in my memory, but I’ll only mention a few.
His hat-trick against Atalanta in the Champion’s League is a massive highlight that perfectly displays the level of brilliance he processed as a player. I still cannot believe I will never see him score another goal again.
His goal record against the old enemy Arsenal was sublime. Always a tough nut to crack, but Jota made a nice habit out of scoring against the Gunners from North London.
But I’ll leave you with my favourite memory of Diogo Jota. He scored the winner against Tottenham Hotspur at Anfield in April 2023.
Liverpool scored twice early in the first half to give Liverpool a comfortable lead before Mo Salah scored a third from the penalty spot. With just 15 minutes played, the game was (apparently) beyond all doubt as Liverpool led 3-0 at home. Liverpool were cruising to victory.
But then, in the second half, disaster struck. Liverpool allowed themselves to become complacent in their comfortable position and conceded twice in quick succession. The score was 3-2. Then, Tottenham’s Brazilian striker Richarlison, the man who used to play for Liverpool’s bitter rivals Everton and was easily the most hated Premier League player at Anfield, scored an equaliser. 3-3 on the score, with minutes left to play.
Throwing away a 3-0 lead was gut-wrenching enough on its own, but that man being the one to score it and break every Liverpool fan's heart made it sting unbearably. Every heart sank, and Anfield fell into stunned silence.
But then, with mere seconds left to play in the match, a Tottenham defender makes an error on the backline and the ever sharp Diogo Jota pounces on the mistake. Picking up the loose ball, he bolts towards the Kop End goal and smashes a last second winner past the keeper, snatching the game away from Spurs and cancelling out Richarlison’s equaliser. Pandemonium ensues, at Anfield and every place a Liverpool fan found themselves in at the time. It still gives me goosebumps thinking about it, even now.
Thank you, Diogo. For the goals, for the memories and for wearing the shirt so proudly.
Rest in peace, amigo. You’ll Never Walk Alone. We’ll never forget you.
Thanks for reading - The Common Centrist
