Saturday marks a desperately dark day in Liverpool’s history as Diogo Jota is laid to rest in Gondomar, Portugal.

Tributes have been streaming in for Jota and his brother, Andre Silva, who were both killed during a road traffic incident in Spain on Thursday morning.

Most of the Liverpool squad have travelled to Jota‘s hometown in order to pay their respects to their fallen teammate.

It marks the latest desperate moment in what is a tragic chapter for Liverpool, the wider footballing community and, most of all, those closest to the brothers.

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In the days since his death, Jota has been widely remembered as a wonderful father, a brilliant husband and son and a terrific football player.

But the 28-year-old was also simply just a person with goals and hopes and dreams about the future.

And while speaking to Portuguese outlet Record in October 2024, Jota shared one of those hopes for his career.

Photo by PAUL ELLIS/AFP via Getty Images

The pain of losing Jota will reverberate around Liverpool Football Club long into the future.

He embodied fully what it meant to play for the Reds.

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However, while Liverpool will now forever and always be his club, Jota admitted that he was one day hoping to take his career back to where it all began: home to Portugal.

“Yes,” he said when asked if coming back to the Portuguese league to win the title interested him.

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“Returning is something that I would say doesn’t make much sense now, but in the future I don’t rule out the possibility.

At this stage, I would say that in the future I would like to return.”

Just 28 at the time of his tragic death, Jota should have had years left in his playing career.

His Liverpool contract ran until 2027 and there is every chance that the former Wolves man would have seen that out, or possibly stayed at Anfield for even longer.

That he will never have the chance to decide is truly heart-breaking.

Jota loved Liverpool, though, that was abundantly clear during his five years with the club.

After his devastating loss, he has now become the only player in modern history who will never leave the club.