His name is Diogo
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The Athletic FC Podcast Network. I used to say this, I think timing as an offensive player is everything. Diaz, sweet touch, shot! The way you can predict what's going to happen. It's fast! If you do that and you react first, it's hard to stop. And it's Diogo Jota who gets the run and privilege! Oh, it's another memorable moment! Privileged by Diogo Jota!

I just want to live my life and try to be happy. Tony Evans here at Walk On, your Liverpool podcast from The Athletic. Sam News and James Pearce are here with me as we react to the shocking news that Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva were killed in Spain. Today we'll pay our own tributes, remember the person and the impact the player made during his time at Anfields.

Giotto was only 28 and was travelling with his brother in Spain before the accident that led to the car exiting the carriageway and bursting into flames. James, it's very, very difficult to process this news, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, it really is. There's still, I think, a sense of disbelief, really, as much as kind of shock and anguish and devastation, yeah.

Yeah, it doesn't feel like it's, it can be real, but sadly it is. I mean, how much detail have we got about what happened? Well, it's still, obviously there's an investigation ongoing. We know that Diogo and his brother were traveling from Porto to Santander to get a ferry back to the UK that

Diogo, we understood, had been advised to travel by sea rather than get a plane due to a minor medical procedure recently. And of course, you know, this comes after...

probably the greatest period in his life, I think it's fair to say, with winning the Premier League, with Liverpool being so embedded in those celebrations, winning the Nations League, with Portugal, and then marrying his childhood sweetheart, Ruta, 11 days before the accident. So the police have said that they are keeping open mind in terms of exactly what happened and why...

why the car ended up going off the carriageway and bursting into flames but yeah it's it's it's a lot to process i think you're right there james it felt like he was at the peak of both his professional and personal life at the moment and that's why it's it's even more disturbing simon you went to anfield yesterday and looked at the tributes that were being placed around the ground and

Tell us about that. I actually got there around midday. So it was only barely two and a half, well, two and a half, three hours after the news broke. And when I saw the story, it was a link to the story. And obviously, D.O.O. Josh's face was sort of, it was all in black and white. And I thought, what's happened there? And then, you know, when suddenly something just dawns on you, you think, oh no, please, please no. And then I thought, I almost like sort of disregarded it for a second. And then,

Checked back and, oh, just heart totally sank. So, yeah, I went across to Anfield just to sort of, I suppose, do my job, engage the mood. I mean, it was just numb. Everybody was very, very quiet, quietly passing over bouquets of flowers. I mean, even by midday, there were hundreds of them. I tried to count. And as soon as you'd finished counting, there were more being added on and more and more.

Very respectful, very dignified. You know, it was upsetting seeing some kids really, you know, I think about this, like how do you tell a young boy or young girl who loves Liverpool, a player's dad? You know, there were some kids who were upset, which I found upsetting. But yeah, that was very early on in the day and then later on in the day,

you know, there were just more and more people, you know, turning up, you know, people have been in work all day. It was just a very slow, somber procession really. And as we've all said, it's just very difficult to process the whole thing. I think it's going to take some time and people question all the time about, you know, why should we care about footballers? You know, why should we care about players so much, devote so much time and,

The reality is, you know, that the fortunes of supporters and players are aligned, aren't they? We want them to do well so they make us feel good. And when that person suddenly is just, you know, ripped apart from our lives, it's shocking. It's totally shocking. It's nothing anybody could have anticipated. And yeah, it's going to take a long time, I think, for people to come to terms with it, if they ever do. I mean, this has never happened in Liverpool Football Club history. A player passing away while...

as you both said, at the peak of his powers? A friend messaged me when the news come through and he took his five-year-old to his first game and Jota scored two goals. And after that, the little fella, Jota was his hero, shared with us back on. And he said to me, I'm dreading having to pick him up from school. I've got to tell him about it. James, you were at Anfield later on. How did you find the moods?

As Simon said, numb, I think is probably a good word to use. It was, it just struck me, the kind of, you had the absolute contrasts of, you know, I was stood in the same spot just near the main stand, what, five, six weeks ago.

for like, you know, the kind of peak of kind of elation, if you like, in terms of, you know, there when the bus arrived and everything that went with that day with the trophy lift and just the sheer joy that that brought people. And then it was just hard to believe that like in that same spot, I was stood there, you know, paying my respects, surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of fans in complete silence.

And I'd say stunned silence, people trying to process it and come to terms with it because, yeah, it's just a difficult one to kind of get your head around because he meant so much to so many people.

Yeah, the tributes have just poured in. We saw them from Kenny's out, Leash, Jürgen Klopp, Arne Slott, and from his teammates such as Andy Robertson, you get a real sense of the personality and the gap he'll leave in their lives. So it's going to be a pretty grim time when they come back to pre-season training next week, isn't it? I don't know how they manage that situation. I genuinely don't. I mean...

To touch on what you just said there, Tony, you know, the statements by a lot of the players have been really nice. You know, I read Jordan Henderson's last night and I suppose most fans didn't really know that much about Jota. He sort of kept himself to himself, didn't he? We judged him by what he did on the pitch and in the conversations that I had yesterday and certainly my thoughts, I was just thinking a lot initially about like him as a player and what, what,

what people liked about him. And I think certainly Liverpoolians and certainly local people could identify with him because of the way he played the game. You know, he was small, aggressive, didn't put up with any nonsense off other players. He, you know, was always up for the fight. In the piece that I wrote, you know, I said he reminded me a lot of Robbie Fowler, the way he finished football.

A bit like Luis Suarez, the way he sort of saw gaps and went for it. And I think people love that about him. But little was known about him off the pitch, I guess. And I think that's where, you know, the players, his teammates and former teammates have brought a bit of light to the conversation the last 24 hours. As I said, Jordan Henderson told a few nice stories about how on the way to away games, you

on the bus, Jotter would take photographs of him while he was asleep and then send them to him later on. I enjoyed that. You know, he was a mischievous character as well. Andy Robertson said that he was the most British of all the foreign players that he played with, enjoyed horse racing, enjoyed darts, you know, the sort of things that maybe might not be in the field of interest of most players.

foreign players arriving in the country and that's why Andy Robertson struck up a real rapport with him. He, of course, was at his wedding only a couple of weeks ago. And then Quivine Kelleher as well, you know, and Conor Bradley have made some really nice statements. Conor Bradley was talking about how when he was fresh new into the Liverpool squad, Jota invited him for a game of FIFA and Jota was, you know, very big into his gaming and was 5-0 up after half-time and, you know, Conor Bradley was saying that

that he never fell into that trap again. So it's really sort of humanised the person as well. But when you read it, it's just devastating to read. And you can't help but gravitate towards the pictures from his wedding, only recently being put up by himself and his family. Absolutely heartbreaking, aren't they? Yeah. Well, next, we'll reflect more on Giotto the person.

Joining us now to talk in more detail about Diogo Jota, the person, we have the Athletics' Tim Spears, who covered the Portuguese's initial move to the Premier League and his time at Wolves. Tim, thanks for joining us. It's a shame the circumstances aren't better. How shocked have you been by this news and what impact has that had around Molineux? I mean, yeah, um...

hit me like a ton of bricks yesterday and I'm going to lie. I mean, it's just, it was sort of too unimaginable to believe at first, really, you know, you sort of see, you see the reports from Spain coming through and people start messaging you and in your journalist capacity, people are asking you if it's true or not. And it's just like, literally it cannot be true. You know, it was, it just felt unbelievable. Um,

Yeah, I mean, I had messages from almost sort of Wolves supporting friends and colleagues yesterday. Everybody's obviously absolutely stunned. I mean, he was hugely popular at Wolves. And I think it's important to add, you know, a bit of context in that he was a key part of really what was the most sort of special, incredible period in Wolves' modern history, really. And there's absolutely no doubt about that.

from 2017 to 2020, going from sort of mid-table in the championship to seventh in the Premier League and a Europa League quarterfinal. You know, this is after four decades of being in the doldrums, almost going out of business, going all the way down to the fourth tier, underachievement for so long. So for what Wolves did in the three years that Jota was there, 2017 to 2020, it's

It's already sort of spoken about in nostalgic terms, to be honest, with how it was done in the last few years. When Nuno coming in and Jota, Neves, and then Moutinho and Jimenez, Patricio, it's already sort of this golden period, really. This sort of unimaginably amazing three seasons. To kind of lose someone from that team already, and Jota was sort of the driving force within it in many ways, is just...

I mean, it's sort of beyond words, really. Yeah. Did you get to know him well? Because he was a very private person, wasn't he? Yeah, I mean, purely in sort of an interview slash interviewee capacity. But, you know, I did speak to him a lot. I mean, you know, that championship season.

I mean, there's 46 games that year and not many media covering Wolves at that time. Certainly in those sort of first few weeks and months, you know, it's just sort of me and the local radio really. And you get great access to players in those times. Not like it is in the Premier League. See, I did speak to him quite a lot. I mean, my first impression of him was

of a pretty shy lad, but who spoke impeccable English. I remember it was Hull away in August 2017. He scored his first goal. And this 20-year-old kid from Porto, and he sort of presented to you after the match, and you're like, oh, you know, it's going to be a difficult interview, speaking very bad. And he just, he was flawless, basically. And you could tell he was sort of very driven. You could tell he sort of knew what the assignment was for Wolves and for his career.

But every time I spoke to him, you know, he was unfailingly polite and very generous with his time and very kind and sort of mild-mannered and just spoke really well. You know, all the Portuguese lads were great, you know, but coming over from, I mean, Jota swapped the Champions League for the Championship, Atletico Madrid for Wolves and could have, could easily, and, you know, players do,

come with this sort of air of superiority and, you know, I'm just here to earn a move elsewhere. But he was never like that. His attitude never reflected his ability, I felt.

and he was so tenacious and worked so incredibly hard. You know, some players come through Wolves, particularly in the George Mendes era, and you know that they know they're not going to be there for long. And you see that sort of arrogance on the pitch and you see an assumption that they're going to move elsewhere, but not Jota. You know, he earned absolutely everything that...

came his way I mean that's why he went to the very top with Liverpool but also that's why nobody sort of begrudged him that big move when it came and why you know he remained so popular he wasn't like he was booed when he came back to Bologna you know he was still so popular after he left which is just a

a credit to the top person he was. Yeah, James, everyone you speak to talks about his humility and lack of ego, which shows at times when he wasn't first choice at Liverpool, he didn't complain, he didn't moan, he just got his head down and carried on. Did you have much dealings with him? Yeah, I had a few one-to-one interviews over the years. The first time was...

It was actually December 2020, so only about three months after he'd made that move from Molyneux. And I think what struck me in that initial chat, which then stayed throughout, is just that sheer sense of pride and delight to have got to where he was. He was always someone who was fully appreciative of what he had. And he was quite open. I read back over it yesterday, and he was talking about how

his personality had been shaped by the knockbacks he'd had en route to proving that he belonged at the top level because you know probably the standout quote he said I was still paying to play football at the age of 16 he didn't have the kind of you know we kind of associate players of his level with you know he must have been a child prodigy he must have you know come through an elite academy with like the best of everything when the reality was he'd spent nine

nine years in a very junior club, Gondamar, and hadn't been taken on by any of the elite clubs in Portugal. But all of those people doubting him and questioning whether he was too small, not gifted enough to make it, that drove him on. And of course, Pacos de Ferreira was the Portuguese club where he ultimately gets his break and then that leads to Atletico, Porto, Wolves and then Liverpool. But

But yeah, I think that kind of backstory just was such a big part of who he was because he'd had to really fight for it. And I think you saw that. The other thing that fascinated me speaking to him was when you see, it was like he was so kind of humble and quiet and clearly just wanted to stay out the limelight. Yet you saw him when he crossed the white line.

he looked like a completely different person you know he had that that edge to him that kind of burning desire to kind of to deliver on the pitch and that's why Liverpool fans took him to their hearts so immediately didn't they because you saw in him everything you want because he was so technically gifted but

I remember Pep Linders referring to him as a pressing monster and Klopp said he's just so easy to like this boy because he's an incredible package. And what Klopp meant by that was that off the pitch, he was so down to earth and so hard working. But then on it, he played like everything depended on the outcome. Yeah. Every time you saw him, Tim, he put in a shift, didn't he? And I think that's where...

The expression of his personality, sort of off the pitch and on the pitch, a part of the same thing. The lack of ego, the willingness to give everything for the team. And there was no pretensions about him. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you know, especially in the championship with those big hairy ass centre-halves, you know, he could easily have been sort of bullied. And they tried to bully him. You know, you could tell they were kicking him all over the place. Yeah, no one bullied Diogo Tiotta.

No, exactly. And he was, yeah, despite his sort of slight family, he was so strong. He scored probably the most iconic goal in sort of Wolves' last 20 years, really. This was the FA Cup quarterfinal.

against Man United in 2019 a real sort of high watermark I think in Wolves' recent history and it was Jota who scored what proved to be the decisive goal and he just left Luke Shaw basically in the pitch it was a complete mismatch in terms of strength and then he jogs 20 yards upfield and scores an incredible goal just picking up on what James said about his sort of drive there and his sort of his journey and

It was really interesting. My favorite interview I did with Diogo was about his love for gaming, which came off the... I mean, we sort of knew he was a gamer. He'd referenced it in interviews before. And then, I don't know if you remember, I mean, this is pretty obscure, but during the first lockdown...

before football came back, the Premier League organised a FIFA tournament that was broadcast on Sky Sports. And they had a player from every team take part in a knockout-style tournament. And Jota was obviously Wolves' representative. And he ended up beating Trent Alexander-Arnold in the final. And I remember Trent getting pretty sulky. I don't know if he threw his controller down, but we've all been there. And yeah, off the back of that,

I've arranged an interview with Jota of iWolves on sort of exclusively just on his love of gaming, basically. And it was really nice. I saw a bit of a different side of him that day. He was so sort of almost giddy in a way to just sort of talk about it. And it was interesting in the sense that he said how both games that he played, which is sort of FIFA and Football Manager, actually helped him in real life in football in terms of strategy, he said, and tactics and being sympathetic to his managers and

But the football manager thing was really interesting. We had a bit of a laugh about it in terms of how you're playing at all hours with your laptop while his missus sort of slept next to him, something I've done many times. But I was struck by how he said he really liked taking very small teams as a manager to sort of the very top. And that...

you know, anyone who's played the game know that that takes a lot of effort and time. But he said how he'd taken Gundamai, his hometown team, all the way to winning the Champions League. And then he managed Telford United, like, you know, a tiny team, sort of National League North, all the way to winning the Europa League. And he was so sort of proud to talk about these achievements. But I just really like that side because, you know, it's so easy to start those games by saying you're going to be Liverpool or Man United and just spend loads of money and win the Premier League. But he's taken like

a decade basically in the game to sort of do that and

I don't know, it sort of reflected his... A, it reflected what he was doing with Wolves at the time, but also B, it just sort of reflects his sort of diligent personality. And you could just tell how obsessed, really obsessed he was with football and indeed all sports, you know. I just got the impression that sort of family and football were everything to him. Yes, one tribute caught my eye. It was from Hairsport, which is a women's sports organisation in Ireland.

talking about his Diogo Jota's support for International Women's Day and they were saying what he did for them is he spoke about the women who raised them, he spoke about his partner and the support he gets from Ruta and he mentioned Marta and Serena Williams as the kind of role models that he hoped not only his two-year-old daughter would look up to but her sons would look up to and

All this suggests a man with many more facets than perhaps we realized. Yeah, I think that's what feels like a real shame as well. Maybe we just overlooked this for such a long time. You know, the more you read about him, the more you hear from other people, he just seems like a very rounded individual. And, you know, listening to Tim, obviously James met him on a few occasions. I think that

The one thing that I really like about him and his story is he's not to be underestimated, you know, and I think that's why particularly Liverpool, Liverpool fans, Liverpool people can relate to that, you know, he wasn't... There was the whiff of the underdog about him. Definitely, definitely. He wasn't...

The tallest player wasn't the quickest player. He didn't seem like the strongest player or even the most technically gifted player. But to say he wasn't any of those things underestimates him because he could do those things very well.

And he was a bit of a throwback in a lot of ways as well. You know, certainly as a, I mean, I'm just talking about him as a footballer because I'd never interviewed him, so I can't really shed any light on what he was like. But he was a bit of a throwback, you know, the sort of player that I could imagine Liverpool signing in the 1970s. When Liverpool signed Diogo Jota, nobody was saying they should be signing Diogo Jota. And yet he signed and just straight away looked like a Liverpool player.

There was no doubt about it immediately. And there's been a lot of reflection, I guess, that the last 24 hours on his goal against Everton, you know, the last goal that he scored. And I've got to say, you know, it was only when I sort of stood back from the situation yesterday and thought about it, you know, I was at the game in a non-working capacity that night in the Kennedy Alguerra stand and I went over the back of my seat when that goal went in.

You know, so that... He provided the sort of joy that you would not ordinarily get in any other part of life. You know what I mean? So that's why people feel as strongly as they do. And then I also think back... I think what's the goal that sort of summarises him the best, I actually think, was the one against Nottingham Forest, where he literally walked onto the pitch, first touch, goal. Not many players can do that. You know, it shows...

a lot of ability, a lot of mental strength to be able to just walk onto the pitch and provide something that you really need at that moment. So, you know, I know as a person listening to people who know him better, he's going to be missed massively, but he's definitely going to be missed as a player as well because he was, although he never became the main, sort of the main figure in the Liverpool attack because of the injuries that he had, he was still a very important player. I remember at the start of the season, there's podcasts, you know, saying if they can keep him fit, you know,

He will score the goals that lead Liverpool to win the, could win the title, you know. And he has a great season as well. He was such a, he was a player that I really enjoyed watching because he was none of the, he was none of the things that we're now told are important about football. He was everything else. I think that's what I liked about him the most. Yeah. Well, I think the one thing that comes through is,

his humility and his drive. Well, anyway, Tim, thank you for coming on and telling us your memories of Diogo Giotta. Hopefully next time we have you on this podcast, it'll be under better circumstances. No worries. Thanks, guys. Oh, he weighs another 20 He will take us to victory

James, he's left behind some legacy, hasn't he?

Yeah, some incredible memories. I was just thinking then, actually listening to Simon talk about him as a player, just thinking it also summed him up, what he took on in 2020, because he was walking into a club that had such a kind of set in stone front three, really. When you thought of Klopp's Liverpool, the names just kind of fell off your tongue, didn't they? It was Salomone Firmino. And he

his challenge was to try and force his way into that and you know incredible and you think you know he scored on his not long into his Premier League debut against Arsenal you know I remember reading some of those early interviews that he did where he of course it was football behind closed doors due to the pandemic at the time and he was he said you know the one thing that I can't wait is to experience you know a full house here and he had to he had to wait for that

And, you know, in the meantime, he got that hat-trick against Atalanta in the Champions League, which I know, you know, the match ball signed by all his teammates from that night was among his prized possessions. And you just knew even watching him behind closed doors that the fans were going to fall in love with him because of everything he was as a player. And as Si said, you know, there were periods of frustration for him where...

some cruel injury setbacks kind of dented momentum but he still played 182 times for Liverpool across five seasons you know 65 goals probably doesn't really do justice to his importance because he scored a lot of important goals because you think if a game was on the line and you thought we might get one more chance here you wanted it to fall to Diogo Jota you know I'd

One of the moments, I was watching it back again yesterday, was that late winner against Tottenham at Anfield in April 2023. And for me, that just sums him up as a player because everyone was losing their heads, wasn't they? Richarlison had just equalised down the other end. It was absolute mayhem. There was time for one attack. Yet he was coolness personified. When you watch back that goal...

The poise and the technique of it. I think he takes two touches and then absolutely hammers it beyond, I think it was Fraser Forster, into that bottom corner at the Kop end. And then even, you know, he didn't even lose his head in the celebrations, you know, before he gets mobbed by his teammates. And I love that moment. And there were many more like that. As I said, even in the course of the title winning season we've just had, you know, you think back,

you know the winner at Palace you know the equaliser late on with 10 men against Fulham as Si said first touch off the bench scores at Forest salvages something from that game the winner against Everton he was the man for the big occasion and yeah it's it's

Yeah, it's difficult really to put into words what Liverpool are going to miss in so many ways. Si, what's a really remarkable stat is that 16 of his 65 goals, that's almost a quarter, were in the last 15 minutes. Yeah, he was just reliable. You know, people might say with his injuries...

It obviously was a problem for him, but when he was on the pitch, he was reliable. You knew what you were going to get from him. Even if he wasn't playing a big part in the game, he was always active. That's what I loved about him. I listened to Salah recently talking about this, about that's the difference between good players and outstanding players, is that they only need one moment.

And for me, you know, that's what made Jota outstanding. He might not be even having a very good game. I remember against Everton in the derby, his last goal, you know, he found it quite difficult. He was getting kicked about everywhere, but he still scored. He still turned up when the moment presented itself. He was there and he was reliable. That's what I loved about him the most. I mean, you mentioned that his stats there in terms of goals, scored seven goals against Arsenal.

That was in a two-year period as well, between 2020 and 2022. Yeah, he tormented them, didn't he? He tormented them. I think back to maybe not one of his more memorable goals because the game was already settled, but he scored at Goodison, the last goal, 4-1. I remember I was in the Gladys Street that night and the goal right down the far end of the park and...

It was, I've got to say, a very satisfying feeling seeing that going. So yeah, as James mentioned, he provided a lot of big moments that made people feel good. So that is why this is particularly hard to take. I mean, I suppose the relationship between fans and journalists and players and everything, it's quite transactional, but...

I think particularly between the fans and the players, you both want the same thing, don't you? So when that thing is achieved, i.e. a goal, a win, and the player gives you that, it makes you feel like you're close together. You know, it does. And that's why it hurts when players leave and come and go and let you down for all the same sort of emotions swirling around. But when you're wearing that shirt and...

and trying to do goodbye to Liverpool as he did so many times. To think that that's not going to happen again is just very hard. Yeah. James, it looks like they'll retire as number 20 shares. Do you think that's the right thing to do? Yeah, I do. I think certainly from Liverpool's perspective, there'll be a period where

they're still processing this and coming to terms with it and as we said earlier you know incredibly difficult for the hierarchy at the club for Michael Edwards and Richard Hughes and Arna Slott to try and guide Liverpool through this and I think clearly Liverpool

in terms of lasting tributes, they'll be guided by Diogo's family. I think that will be their absolute priority, will be to anything that they do in line with their wishes. But of course, yeah, I think retiring the number 20 jersey...

would be the right thing to do. When I was at Anfield late last night, you know, reading some of the floral tributes there, you know, one of them just said, you know, forever in our hearts, forever our number 20, you know, Diogo Jota, the eternal champion. And yeah, you think that that would certainly be among, I think, you know, something that would be really fitting.

After the news come through, I spoke to quite a lot of people in Portugal, some of his friends. And what they emphasized was although he was so committed to his family, obviously his brother, his parents, and his wife and three kids, he loved living in Liverpool. And what he liked most, he said, was that it was an environment, a playing environment and a living environment where people backed you 100%.

He said, you know, you don't get there everywhere. And when things went wrong for the team,

the crowd didn't turn on him and the support he got was magnificent. So he got, you know, obviously lots of support from his family back home in Portugal, but he relished the support he got on Merseyside. And it's difficult. Most of our legends grow old and we see them growing old. They get a paunch, the hair goes grey, but,

Diogo Jota will forever be frozen at 28 at his peak. And you look at that and you think, getting old's a privilege that he won't have. And that's the saddest thing of all. So that's it for this episode of Walk On. Thanks to James, Simon and Tim. And you too for listening.

Our thoughts here at the Athletic with the family of Diogo and Andre. And to end, I just wanted to echo the words of Arnaz Lott in a statement on the Liverpool website, as he said, When the time is right, we'll celebrate Diogo Giotta. We will remember his goals and we will sing his song. But now we're remembering that as a unique human being, a morning has lost. He won't be forgotten. His name is Diogo.