Diogo Jota tribute: Liverpool forward who died in car accident was an inspiration in how he rose to the top | Football News

The image in the eye of the mind is an exuberance, of optimism. It is the memory of this small but robust setting that slips after the ball, hunting opportunities, which will continue. Diogo Jota loved playing football.

It always shone while looking at him. But he was much more than a footballer. He was a father and a son. Tragically, he also became a husband a few days before his death in Zamora at the age of 28. Sadness is overwhelming.

The road from Jota to the summit with Liverpool and Portugal was a little different from many of his peers. Exceptionally for a Portuguese player of such potential, he had not been one of the famous academies of Benfica, Sporting or Porto when he was a young teenager.

But it was not only that.

Jota was still paying to play the local Gondomar club at the age of 16. Somehow. By talking to him three years ago, he in fact wanted to correct this detail. “It was not that I paid, it was my parents.” He was always grateful and wanted it to be clear.

“In Portugal, things are different from England,” he explained this afternoon in 2022. “I was playing for a small club and we had to pay monthly to be able to play. It was only when I was transferred to Pacos [de Ferreira in 2013] That I started to receive money. “”

Speaking to Vasco Seabra, his pacos trainer, he gave an overview of the measure to which Jota came from the Portuguese football fringe to play in a final of the Champions League. Seabra even had to write to the Portuguese FA just to bring them to see him.

“I remember sending an email to our coach of the national team U19.” Seabra just knew. “It’s his character,” he said. “Diogo is an incredible person. I’m not even talking about him as a player because he is obviously incredible. But as a person.

“You might think that the very good players would not listen when they were told to receive the ball here or try to be better for that. You might think they are so good that you can let them play. It is the opposite. The best players are humble and want to learn.”

I asked Jota once where it came from.

“This hunger is with me since I remember. In my youth, growing up, I have never played for the big teams. I had some teammates who went to Porto or Benfica. I had trials there but I never stayed. I was one of the best but never the best.”

Humble. Self -aware. Conduit.

It was also a fun conversation. Jota was in Adidas HQ in Stockport by turning for the release of a new football boot, but took the time to sit and discuss his career. He was a warm and engaging company, speaking of much more than football.

He talked about his joy to spend time with the family and what it meant. Then he smiles. “I’m also waiting for the release of FIFA 23. I love this game.” He was the master, winning a tournament among the Premier League players during the pandemic. “No rivals.”

I very rarely ask photos with players. But I did it with him.

Mainly, it is because I felt privileged for having witnessed his ascent. The first time I saw Jota playing in the flesh was at Porto against Leicester in the Champions League. He scored the fifth goal of the Estadio Do Dragao that night, just a few days after being 20 years old.

A crackling career with possibility.

He arrived in English football the following summer, joining Wolves, the club that I supported as a boy, even moving next to my aunt and my uncle.

It was an instant success, scoring 17 goals during this winning season of the championship, clearly a cup over the competition alongside Ruben Neves.

At first, some had suggested that these Portuguese children may not be able to cope with the cup and the push of life in the second level of England, especially in a city less than prosperous in the West Midlands. They did not know Jota. He kissed her.

During the promotion of the Premier League, it took a little time to adapt, but a change of position sparked his season in December, marking a winner against Chelsea before making his first hat-trick in English football in a 4-3 dramatic defeat of Leicester.

He marked in molinine victories against Manchester United two weeks apart. He marked against Arsenal. During the following season, there were two other hat tricks against Besiktas and Espanyol because the club he had joined in the championship prospered in Europe.

Such successes attracted Liverpool’s attention. Fees above 40 million pounds sterling felt big for a player who was not guaranteed a starting place at Wolves. But this week’s president of Wolves, Jeff Shi, said it was the sale he regretted the most. Liverpool spotted something.

Speaking last year in Ian Graham, the former director of research for Liverpool, he described exactly what it was.

“He was really interesting because we went back and forth with the video analysis department. We knew that he was not playing in training like a large attacker, but the way he interpreted this role made him look more like a Liverpool Large forward. “”

In five seasons in Liverpool, Jota won everything there was to win in English football, scoring 65 goals in 182 appearances. There have been injuries and the strange drought, but so many important interventions, appearing at key moments when Liverpool needed him.

Jamie Carragher called her the best finisher of the club.

Another memory. An Nile to the Nottingham forest in January, he emerged the bench to mark the equalizer only 22 seconds after entering the field. In April, he marked the winner against Everton in the Merseyside derby.

It is now difficult to think of the fact that these are its last two goals. There was so much more to come, not only on the ground, but above all. A life still to live. If there is a comfort, it comes from the thought that he did more than he did.

“I probably didn’t think I could reach Liverpool,” he admitted that day to Stockport. But he did more than that. He made memories to cherish.