Fans of Liverpool call on the club to retire Diogo Jota's No20 sweater as a sign of respect after his tragic death.
The football world is in a state of mourning after the Reds and Portugal striker, 28, together with his brother Andre Silva, 25, died in a car accident in Spain in the early hours of Thursday morning.
The Spanish authorities said that the brothers and sisters were found dead after their car had gone from a road near the city of Zamora.
The police suspect that the crash was caused by a tire bladder. Liverpool said that the club was 'destroyed' by the news and called it an 'unimaginable loss'.
Mail Sport has taken a look in earlier cases in which clubs around the world football have retired the shirt number of a player.
1. Jude Bellingham (Birmingham City – NO22)
Birmingham City decided to retire the NO22 shirt of the departing teenager Jude Bellingham in July 2020.
Bellingham's last performance for his boys' club, a 3-1 defeat against Derby, came only a few days after he had completed a move to Borussia Dortmund in a deal that saw him become the most expensive 17-year-old in football history.
The Englishman has since become a megaster with Real Madrid and was named La Liga's player of the season in his first year in Spain.
2. Diego Maradona (Napoli – NO10)
Diego Maradona, one of the world's best players, has certainly left his mark.
His hand of God Doel against England in the quarterfinals of 1986 was a notorious moment, but the Argentinian was widely praised.
He supplied two Series A titles for Napoli during a shimmering seven-year career in Naples, before the Italian side officially withdrew his NO10 sweater in 2000.
Argentina also tried to retire his NO10 international shirt on time for the World Cup 2002, but had rejected their request by FIFA.
On December 4, 2020, nine days after the death of Maradona, the home stadium of Napoli was renamed Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
3. Bobby Moore (West Ham – No. 6)
West Ham and England legend Bobby Moore is often considered the best defender coming from England.
So fitting, in 2008, at the 50 -year anniversary of his debut for the club, the hammers decided to retire Moore's NO6 shirt.
Moore supplied West Ham and also England, where he lifted the only World Cup in the country so far.
Since then he has been further honored by the hammers with a statue outside the London Stadium.
4. Marc -Vivien Foe (Manchester City – No. 23)
In 2003, Cameroon legend Marc-Vivien Foe played against Colombia in the Confederations Cup for his country when he collapsed in the center circle.
Despite the desperate attempts by Medici to breathe new life into him, he died of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in the hospital.
Manchester City, where he had been on loan, pulled his NO23 sweater into good.
5. Emiliano Sala (Nantes – NO9)
The shocking death of Emiliano Sala resulted in an investigation.
The body of the 28-year-old was found in the wreck of the plane that crashed into the English canal when he flew to Cardiff City after his transfer of £ 15 million in 2019.
The football world mourned, while his former club Nantes retired his No9 sweater, after 133 games for the Ligue 1 Club brought 48 goals.
6. George Baldock (Panathinaikos – NO32)
Greece-international George Baldock, born in England, was found dead in October last year in the swimming pool of his house in Glyfada, Zuid-Athene.
The findings of the first coroner suggested that Baldock drowned and the police excluded any criminal activities.
Baldock had become with the Blades with the Greek Zijpanathinaikos in the summer after seven years.
The Greek club eliminated its NO32 shirt.
7. Peter Whittingham (Cardiff – NO7)
Cardiff eliminated the No 7 shirt in honor of their late midfielder Peter Whittingham.
Whittingham died in March 2020 at the age of 35 after a traumatic head injury in Barry.
The former international under-21 of England spent 10 years in Cardiff after drawing Aston Villa and scored 98 goals in 459 performances.
8. Ray Jones (QPR – NO31)
The 18-year-old Queens Park Rangers-striker Ray Jones died in August 2007 after he was driving frontally in a bus in London.
His two passengers in the car also died.
As a characteristic of respect, QPR postponed their upcoming game with Burnley, who replaced the match with an open training session with yields that went to the charity of QPR's choice.
QPR also decided to retire the NO31 shirt in memory of Jones.
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