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Diogo Jota’s Liverpool career is perfectly summed up by Bill Shankly’s words.

‘Liverpool was made for me and I was made for Liverpool’, Anfield’s modern godfather once famously declared; words which prove prophetic decades on.

Jota was not the archetypal modern footballer.

He elected for a tracksuit and trainers over the high-end designer brands favoured by some teammates.

Gaming became his main vice away from the game to the point he had to withdraw from a FIFA online tournament just hours before a Reds’ game.

Few footballers would also opt to take a leisurely cycle along Crosby Beach just 24 hours after he had been crowned a Premier League champion.

But Jota was the embodiment of the fan on the pitch.

When he told supporters he was ‘one of them’ upon his 2020 arrival, it wasn’t hyperbole.

Many players that have donned the famous red shirt will claim they are honourary Scousers but Jota was one of the few who justified the moniker.

Even the nickname handed down by The Kop of ‘Jota the Slotter’ could have been festooned on him in the streets of Kirkdale or Wavertree as a youth.

From the second he arrived, Jota proved to be a man for the big moments.

He was the architect of Liverpool’s first post-pandemic goal as well as for Arne Slot’s fledgling reign which culminated in a record-equalling 20th title.

Last-minute winners and decisive strikes were par for the course for a player whose chant soundtracked Jurgen Klopp’s side in their quest for a quadruple.

From the night he sealed Liverpool’s place in the 2022 Carabao Cup final at Arsenal to the culmination of that campaign, the ditty was omnipresent.

Although that bid for an unprecedented four-trophy haul ultimately fell short, the ‘lad from Portugal’ continued to play football with a smile on his face.

That unbridled joy extended to two open top bus parades around the city; one showcasing a domestic double before this May’s Premier League triumph.

On both occasions, his beaming expression proved one of the abiding memories and feels somewhat fitting as his final act in Liverpool colours.

He was, however, more than just a footballer and demonstrated his personal qualities during times of genuine adversity within the Anfield dressing room.

When Luis Diaz missed Nottingham Forest’s visit after his father’s kidnapping, the Colombian was incorporated into his attacking cohort’s goal celebration.

Jota’s benevolence towards his teammates was matched by an unrelenting desire to be the best possible version of himself for a club that embraced him.

Never was that more evident than on the eve of an eventual Champions League last 16 exit to Paris Saint-Germain in the Anfield press room.

On a nine-game scoreless run, he conceded to struggling for his ‘best form’ despite contributing to the English champions-elect’s surge to the summit.

He vowed to recapture those peak moments in the only way that he knew how; by working tirelessly and trying to do his best ‘no matter what’.

For those of us who had regularly spoken to him in the mixed zone over the previous three years, such a candid admission was hardly out of the ordinary.

Just three weeks on, he scored a 65th – and final – goal in a Liverpool shirt to secure a 1-0 win over Everton which put them 12 points clear at the summit.

It was a strike which perfectly encapsulated Jota’s skillset with the guile to elude two opposing defenders before squeezing the ball into The Kop’s net.

Such moments should be standout moments rather than final acts in a career which still had plenty to offer before news of Thursday’s untimely passing.

Football has lost not only a sublime talent but also a wonderful person.


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