He took us to victory – a tribute to Diogo Jota
“He will take us to victory,” sang the Liverpool fans in his honour – and Diogo Jota so often did exactly that.
The Portugal forward, who has tragically passed away in a road traffic accident at the age of 28, was a truly clutch figure for the Reds, in just the right place when his team needed his wonderful knack for finishing.
He arrived at Anfield in September 2020, enhancing the new Premier League champions’ attacking ranks by making the switch from Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Jota’s career had started out in his home country at Pacos de Ferreira and a senior debut in 2014 kicked off a rise to glory in the club and international game.
Signed by Atletico Madrid in 2016, he would not actually appear for the Spanish side, instead enjoying a productive next campaign on loan at FC Porto, honing his scoring skills and gaining Champions League experience.
Another loan, this time to Wolves, beckoned and Jota was a key protagonist in firing the Midlands outfit out of the Championship with 17 goals during 2017-18.
Capable of playing across all attacking positions, his work-rate and nimbleness enabled him to foil defenders and goalkeepers in all kinds of ways, and those talents were successfully transferred permanently to the Premier League.
Back-to-back seventh-placed finishes for Wolves in England’s top flight came alongside a run to the Europa League last eight in 2019-20 that saw Jota score nine times.
They adored Diogo Jose Teixeira da Silva at Molineux too.
Liverpool then swooped to recruit him and despite the unenviable challenge of forcing his way into a front line already composed of Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah, his impact was quick and considerable.
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Indeed, Jota reached double figures for goals by his 21st Reds appearance, a tally that included a scintillating hat-trick away at Atalanta in the Champions League.
An untimely injury stopped him from continuing that start but he returned to clinical effect, racking up 21 strikes in all competitions as Jürgen Klopp’s side almost achieved a quadruple in 2021-22, lifting the Carabao Cup and Emirates FA Cup.
‘The slotter’ was vital to those triumphs, a brilliant cameo against Leicester City in the quarter-finals of the former followed with a tie-deciding double at Arsenal in the semi-finals, while there was an FA Cup winner in the last eight versus Nottingham Forest.
Right foot, left foot, head, he could score every goal. He’d do it with that bright smile, a beam across the face that still could not hide his enormous competitive edge.
Though fitness misfortunes prevented Jota from always being able to feature in the seasons that followed, he continued to tot up goals and assists for the cause, relied upon by Klopp and his successor, Arne Slot.
A cool head on the pitch – just remember his 94th-minute Anfield decider against Tottenham Hotspur in April 2023 – and a respected and much-loved teammate off it.
What cruelly has proved to be his final flourish in football saw Jota become a Premier League champion and a UEFA Nations League winner.
The No.20 will be rightly immortalised for his contributions as part of Liverpool’s 2024-25 title-winners – the club’s 20th – with his trademark shimmy and strike in front of the Kop to seal victory in April’s Merseyside derby a poignant last goal of his life.
“To arrive at this particular season with the title that I’ve been chasing for a lot of years and in the best league in the world – for me where I dreamed to play as a kid – it’s a moment I will cherish forever,” he said.
“It is a remarkable achievement for a small guy that came from Gondomar, where I had this dream. To arrive at this moment was outstanding.”
More joy and landmark moments followed just last month as Portugal – Jota represented his country 49 times and 14 of his overall senior total of 150 goals came in internationals – lifted the Nations League trophy.
And he then celebrated marriage to wife Rute, with whom he had three children, on June 22.
Jota was a winner and a wit. A lover of football, of family, of life. A special player, a very special person.
He will be a huge loss.
“His name is Diogo,” rang the chorus of that very own supporter chant. And we’ll never forget it.
RIP Diogo Jota, 1996-2025