When a young person dies, it is always devastating, heartbreaking news, but if it is someone you are so familiar, someone you have viewed and worshiped from the distance, plays for the club that you love, it always touches a little more at home.
It is so terrible and shocking news. My thoughts go out to all his friend, family and loved ones.
Diogo Jota was easy to love as a football fan. He scored goals and he worked hard. He gave everything on the field and always had a talent of popping up with a crucial finish. When you do both things, it is of course that you become a favorite of fans. And Jota was certainly one of them.
Although a few injuries stopped him and although he did not always start every game, he always played with a smile on his face and always gave everything for the team. That tells you about the kind of player and person he was and why Liverpool loved him.
Every Liverpool player who wins titles is always with great pleasure and Jota has been in the front of the club's success in recent years. Players like him, those technical, creative players we all like to view, always have a special place in our hearts. He will be cherished for decades and decades for the magical things he produced for the club during this wonderful period.
Each fan will have his own favorite memory of which of his goals they kept the most, whether it is the last-minute winner against Tottenham or his recent strike in the Merseyside Derby to keep Liverpool's title offer on the right track.
Supporters loved him and there are so many goals that he scored that fans will share when they talk about him today.
Tragedies such as these places football in perspective. We are so passionate about the game, about who wins and loses, and who should play where, which system we should use, which players should sign the team, but days like this show that some things are much more important.
This club has often experienced devastating tragedies and the Liverpool family will come together, as they always do, to mourn this terrible loss of one of its own, far too fast.