The life of Diogo Jota and Rute Cardoso seemed impeccable and perfect, with everything for their young family. This is a brutal memory of how fragile life can be, writes Ian Herbert

They met for the first time in the library of their high school and in 13 years together always had a modest feeling of where they would come from. He was not interested in Ostentation, while one day she hoped to start the marketing diploma for which she once registered.

But for all that self -eviction, Diogo Jota And the life of Rute Cardoso, choreographed on the thorough contemporary road through Instagram, seemed unparalleled and perfect, without a cloud in their heaven.

The contrast between their impeccable world – with the highlight being their Catholic marriage in the neighborhood Jota and his 26-year-old brother died is one of the most devastating aspects From what came in the early hours of Thursday. A brutal memory how fragile and short -term every life can be.

When Mrs. Cardoso started Post images of himself and Jota – The love of her life – There had been no such choreography. No fame. They were teenagers – barely more than children – and the images, somewhat out of focus, where Jota sometimes forgets to look at the camera, reflected an everyday life that they loved. He was depicted in action by a local newspaper, much to the delight. “Que Lindinho!” (How cute!) She noticed.

It was of course His celebrity that made them a home: A few with award -winning videographers Felippe & Katia Gonçalves by hand to put together what is in retrospect the completely heartbreaking short video of their wedding day, the Sunday for the last time.

An audio for guidance, written on the couple, reminded them that this was an opportunity “that will mark your life for the rest of your days.” The only time they would collect, ‘at the same time, in the same place’ with everyone who made the most.

Diogo Jota met his wife, Rute, at school, and the duo grew up together and had a family

Youth diets, they only got married a few days ago for the tragic death of the football player on 28

When Rute started placing images of the couple, there was no choreography or fame involved

The cheese -like turquoise groomsmen and the rather self -conscious groom in that video are a memory that there was always more than the surface gloss for Jota and the young woman who shared his very best times.

When he and his future wife met in 2012 in High School in Gondomar, a city in the east of Porto, known for the industry of Goldsmith, he was the self -assured, socially well -established, while she arrived new from Jovim, a few miles of West at the Douro.

They ended up in the same class, where they remembered his rather detached approach to study – “dedicated, on the one hand and uninterested, on the other,” as she said it a few years later – when he joined football. “He managed to get good grades, but without studying much.”

Yet there was always a feeling that she, the driving force, had the greater confidence of the two-hem after his large move from the local Porto team Pacos de Ferreira to Atletico Madrid, who saw them moving together as 19-year-olds. ‘Diogo also has this dream, but we have to do it step by step. Nothing went to his head. He’s still the same, “she said.

She knew all about the way he’d leg initially rejected by Both Benfica and Porto, Shattering the Confidence Engendered in Him by the Local Gondomar Sport Clube, for whom he scored 38 goals in One Season, By His Endless Hours Inrace Inrace Inrace in Inrace in Inrace Tricks, inspired by the Careers of His Father and Grandfather, Both Former Amateur Football Players.

She had applied for that marketing diploma at the University of Mirandela, in the northeast of Portugal, and the hope cherished to transfer her offer from a place to a facility closer to where they would be, although that should wait. “It’s on hold,” she said. “It depends on what is happening in Diogo’s career.”

They did not think that things would fly like they did, with Jota’s loan switch to Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2017 after a return went home to play for Porto had not really worked. And then, in 2020, the move to Liverpool who brought his career to the heights.

How they embraced their new English world. In Wolverhampton, Mrs. Cardoso placed images of herself dressed in outfits that happened to be green and gold and she liked traveling to Warwick Castle.

They were teenagers and the images were somewhat out of focus with Jota who sometimes forgot to look at the camera

Jota was once depicted in action by a local newspaper – “Que Lindinho!” (How cute!), Rute subtitled the Instagram post

When Jota was at Wolves, she often wore green or gold outfits and shared online photos

In Wolverhampton, MS Cardoso loved Travel to Warwick Castle while she followed her love

She also embraced the Liverpool – Life – The couple had three children, welcomed the third late year

The brothers may not remember that their father and sister are barely the sixth months – their mother lags behind to help them all navigate a way ahead

She also devoured their Liverpool experience – more than once posting with the soundtrack of Gerry and the Pacemakers ‘You will never walk alone.’ Heaven helps everyone who has assigned her Diogo an injustice. ‘Targeted game’, she posted after a controversial game in which Referehoeds brought Liverpool defeat in Tottenham, and her husband was sent away.

It has been in the Liverpool years that the children started to arrive – first Denis, then Duarte and, last November, their daughter whose name has not yet been announced. “You want to be the best father you can be,” Jota told the media channels of the club last month. “You try to give a good example, give them good feedback, even if you sometimes want to rest a little more in the afternoon.”

You feel that his wife was very much the rock of this young family. A young family with everything for us travels together on an adventure.

The loss of a player in such circumstances is always a brutal shock, which brings the feeling of a shortened life; So much not -inged and unspoken. The ambitions of Laurie Cunningham highly reflected Jota’s, given that he too was in the early twenty when he ran a career abroad and left West Bromwich Albion for Real Madrid.

Cunningham was 33 when he died after his car collided with another vehicle with a flat tire on the side of the road near Madrid in 1989. It is hardly credible that next month would have been 69, given that he exists in the heads of those who saw him play as an eternal youthful figure. The same can be said of Antonio Reyes, 35 years old when he was killed six years ago in a car accident in Sevilla.

Yet Jota’s death brings the most lively and public feeling of loss on 28. A video compiled for the fourth anniversary of his eldest son Denis, last November, catches both boys and carries the soundtrack of Ever Yours, by the Portuguese artist Beo. “My heart hurts, but somehow in the right places,” the text runs. “You give me a enough feeling.”

The brothers may not remember that their father and sister are barely sixth months old. Their mother is left to help them all navigate a way forward, her grief unpredictable.