No matter the distance, Jota was always reached.
“He never changed his phone number after leaving Pacos. He didn’t need it. He always replied when people phoned,” former club president Paul Meneses.
“Sometimes, such a bad situation can make us very generous in the way we talk about those who have passed away. But that was not the case.
“The last time we were promoted to the top 2018-19, he sent me a message, humbly asking if he could watch. Then, the day we won the league title, he sent me a message five seconds after the game finished, saying,” We did it again. This was a man who knew his origin. “
None of this will come as a surprise for those who shared the dressing room with him.
Former Liverpool goalkeeper and now Brentford goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher remembered how they would gather to follow Portugal’s low productivity.
“You became one of my closest friends in football. We joined about everything related to sports, watching any football match we can find – often your brother Andre’s games on your iPad,” Kelleher wrote on social media.
It seems almost contradictory that the person who is very connected to his formation can still be accustomed to the seam everywhere he goes – be it Gondomar, Pacos, Porto, Wolverhampton or Liverpool.
“He was a British foreign player I had ever met,” Liverpool’s left -handed Andy Robertson said. “We were making jokes he was really Irish … I would try to claim it as Scottish, it is clear. I called Diogo Macjota.
“We would look at the arrows together, happy the horse race. Going to Cheltenham this season was a show – one of the best times we had.”
It doesn’t matter to Jota that he had a profession named after him returning home. Neither that the position was built thanks to its transfer. Or even that he was scoring goals in the Champions League.
He was still the same person who had won the bad habit of being football.
“He was a wonderful young man – a strong personality, a great character, and a great competition, every time he was eager to win. But more than anything, he appreciated honesty, he respected the people who were directly with him, and had little time for those who hit the bush,” said Seabra.
He was a footballer who knew he would not have done at the height he received if not with the help of Teresas along the way.
