What Diogo Jota really loved the field – and the commentary of three words, Jurgen Klopp made me who reveals how he will be remembered by Liverpool: Dominic King

On trains in Liverpool‘s Lime Street Train Station This morning, telephones ping with news alerts about the death of the beloved Liverpool FC striker Diogo Jota.

Nobody wanted to believe it. How could it be that someone in their prime, so universally popular, had extinguished his life?

You don’t have to know that someone personally remains deeply sad, but I got to know him in my role as the North West -football reporter of the post and he stood out for his infallible courtesy and politeness.

When I interviewed him about his performances in press conferences or in the more informal ‘mixed zone’ where players and journalists had interaction after matches, there was never a lead over him. He was what we call in these parts ‘a really good boy’.

It is a measure of the affection in which he was held by Liverpool fans that they have composed a song for him.

‘Oh, he is wearing our number 20! He will bring us to victory! And when he walks along the left wing, he cuts inside and scores for LFC! He is the boy from Portugal, better than Figo, you don’t know! Oh, his name is Diogo! ‘

Only the special ones who are embraced from the first moment get songs made with so much joy and imagination. And boy, was Diogo Jota Special. Quicksilver with magical feet, he was smart and competent and there were grounds to say that he was the most natural finisher of Liverpool since Robbie Fowler.

Diogo Jota was married to his childhood love Rute Cardoso, the mother of his three children in the last two weeks. Here they are depicted on their wedding day

The couple has three children, depicted on the Anfield field in May after winning the Premier League

The song for him made you smile and it was a good thing because he made you smile. When you were dealing with him, away from the cameras, he left an impression with his professionalism and courtesy. You saw him on the field and you knew that good times would never be too far away.

How terrible then the thought of his warm smile only brings tears on this darkest day. The unimaginable sadness that a family in Portugal has overwhelmed, after two brothers died in a car accident on the Spanish border, has destroyed a city and left football fans in shock.

Cristiano Ronaldo, his captain of Portugal, explained that the incident is ‘not logical’ and he is absolutely right. How is it even possible that we can write about someone here in a past tense if everything was still for them?

Jota was just married to a long -term girlfriend, Rute, the couple was blessed with three beautiful young boys. 38 days ago they had been to the field in Anfield and listened to the head that sang his name. Representing with happiness, while holding a medal from a Premier League winners, he happily participated.

One afternoon when so many sights took place for you, through the Tickertape and the Red Pyrotechniek, there was something about Jota shaking his arms to the rhythm of the song, with a great broad grin that remained in the spirit.

He was not the biggest star in the group, not long. That was not his character. But he was one of those players that fans of Liverpool love, the kind you know, always gives his maximum and will probably always think of something when the team needed it.

Liverpool had signed him in September 2020, just after their previous Premier League success. It was a movement of Stealth, announced on a Friday afternoon within 24 hours after interest that became known, and the enjoyment of securing his signature of Wolves was huge.

He was seen wild with Cristiano Ronaldo on 8 June – less than a month ago – after Portugal won the Nations League

Pep Libnders, the then assistant head coach of Liverpool, mapped the progress of Jota after a loan from Porto in 2016-17. The Dutchman called him ‘a Persing Machine’ and Jurgen Klopp was also a fully paid member of his fan club and looked at Wolves after signing Jota when he had the chance.

He was a popular figure in the black country; Jota was passionate about the football manager of the computer game and once proudly revealed that he had brought Non League Telford to the top of European football, which had spent a lot of time for a screen during the Lockdown.

His dedication to his profession, however, was emphasized in the fact that Jota was one of the first to go back to training when limitations were lifted – and that level of dedication was an aspect that immediately made an agreement with his new teammates five years ago.

The dressing room of Liverpool was notoriously difficult at the time to make an impression, but immediately he buzzed around and tried to show that he could make the Billing Billing Klopp to have received him with his famous Trident of Mo Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino.

And what a start did he make: seven goals in his first 10 games, a figure only surpassed by Fowler (1993), Tony Hateley (1967) and Johnny Wheeler (1956), including a hat trick in a Champions League skewer from Atalanta.

“Their quality makes it easier for me to do my work,” Jota said that night in Bergamo, unintentionally to let the world know the kind of character he was. ‘They are excellent players. I play so far for the best team in my career. ‘

There was hardly any time every five years that followed when he gave no reason for happiness. Yes, he was betrayed by fitness issues on occasions, but at the best was a huge asset: there was devil and tenacity mixed with undoubtedly skills and flair.

One conversation with Klopp in February 2022 about him is still easily recalled, not for what the German said, but more how he responded when the observation was made. I told him that Jota, whose form had been excellent, had scored the opening goal of Liverpool that season 10 times.

“Ah,” Klopp said that way of him, letting his chin rest on his hand and smiled. “A good boy.”

Everyone felt the same, especially Arne Slot. He will be owed forever to the contributions that solve his debut campaign – the first goal of his reign, in Ipswich, a vital equalizer against Fulham on December 14, a month later in the city area against Nottingham Forest.

Then there was his last goal of the season, on April 2. Nothing was guaranteed that Everton arrived in Anfield and this Merseyside Derby was fractious, Bitty and on a knife edge until the 57th minute when Jota shuffled and shuffled and slid in a finish that placed the title within reach.

How Anfield sang his name that night. How he loved scoring that goal and hit his arms in the air while walking to a standing ovation 18 minutes later. They will never forget that goal. And they will never forget him, the number 20 that helped to deliver title number 20. The love for Jota is eternal.