Featured Image Credit: Getty Images
Topics: Diogo Jota, Luis Diaz, Liverpool, Premier League
Jack Kenmare
Topics: Diogo Jota, Luis Diaz, Liverpool, Premier League
Luis Diaz referenced Diogo Jota's kind nature as he paid tribute to the former Liverpool forward following his tragic death – and a heartwarming story involving the pair sums up what Jota was like as a person.
Jota and his younger brother Andre Silva, who played for Portuguese second-tier club Penafiel, were involved in a fatal car crash that occurred in the early hours of Thursday morning near Zamora, in northwestern Spain.
It was confirmed by the Spanish Guardia Civil that their car, a green Lamborghini, left the road due to a tyre blowout while overtaking another vehicle.
Tributes have poured in from the football world and beyond over the past 24 hours, with many Liverpool players posting their memories of the Portuguese forward, including Andy Robertson, Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz.
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Taking to Instagram, Diaz wrote: "I have no words. It hurts in my soul. Not just for what he was on the pitch, but for the person he was off it."
Diaz would go on to reference the moment when Jota help up his shirt when his father had been kidnapped.
"There are gestures that one never forgets, and Diogo had one with me that will accompany me all my life," he added. "My hug goes out to Rute, his three children and his family. Rest in peace, Diogo and Andre."
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Jota's kindness was once again on full display in 2022, when he lost thousands after coming to a financial agreement with Diaz.
Prior to them becoming teammates at Anfield, the pair were landlord and tenant as Diaz was renting Jota's house in his hometown of Porto. “He rented the house I’d lived in when I played for Porto,” Jota said in an interview with FourFourTwo in 2023.
Jota, who spent the 2016/17 campaign on loan at Porto, would then make a decision regarding their financial contract that sums him up as a person.
“He was paying me rent, then he ended up playing with me, and I often still bring that up during our conversations," said Jota. "He arrived in January and had a contract with me until July, but because he was going to be my team-mate, I let him out of the contract."
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Jota would go on to praise Diaz in the interview. “When Luis arrived in England, he was really important for us with the energy he brought to the team in the latter stages of that season, when we nearly won everything,” he added.
“Two trophies wasn’t bad, but it could have been a story forever. I really think that if we had won the Premier League, we would have won the Champions League. We could have written football history, especially in English football.”
Diaz was one of many to praise Jota's kind-nature off the pitch, with Harvey Elliott describing him as “humble, hardworking and kind" before stating he was "always there for anyone that needed anything”.
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An incredible human-being who will be missed dearly.