Former Premier League manager Jose Mourinho expressed his grief at the death of Liverpool Vooruit Diogo Jota while he became emotional and says: “It is hard to understand” why he is no longer there
Jose Mourinho was clearly left emotionally while discussing the tragic death of Diogo Jota, after he had called the Liverpool a “really fantastic boy”. Jota, 28, was killed in a traffic accident together with his brother, Andre Silva, 25, in the early hours of Thursday 3 July.
The Portugal International had traveled to Santander, Spain, to take a ferry back to Merseyside before the start of the preseason of the Reds.
His death sent shock waves through the football world and beyond. The Reds star had just secured his first Premier League winner’s medal with Liverpool, won the Nations League Trophy with Portugal and married his childhood love, RUTE, only two weeks earlier.
One of the many people who were deeply sad because of his death was his countryman and former manager Chelsea and Manchester United, Mourinho.
The 62-year-old was interviewed on Tuesday evening in Portugal’s Channel 11 program ‘Futebol Total’ and was visibly moved when he was talking about Jota.
Mourinho started to say: “I greeted Jota twice. Once we played Tottenham-Wolverhampton, and again on one of the ‘Galas Das Quinas’ of the federation. Although I did not know him, I know him so well … His agent is the same as mine. Image Rights, managers …
“My new employee, Antonio Dias, worked with him for a number of years in Wolverhampton. In other words, I know him well without having met him.
“Everyone spoke with love about that boy. He was the player, the team player, the boy, the family man, the way he dealt with the organization.”
Mourinho added: “He must have been a really fantastic boy. I keep saying that one day I hope, but only in 40 or 50 years, I will realize why these things happen. It is hard to understand.”
The manager of Fenerbahce was one of the countless sporting figures who tributed to Jota after the heartbreaking announcement of his death. He previously said Sky Sports: “When people leave this world, we all say:” Such a nice guy. “Diogo was really a nice guy.
“People in Liverpool know what I say where is. He is a child who was nothing easy for him, he had to fight to get where he arrived. Three children without a father, a young woman without her husband, the parents lose both sons … It’s crazy.
“It happened to me many, many years ago when I worked with MR at Porto [Bobby] Robson. One of our boys, a beloved boy, died in a car accident.
“Instead of the boys who suffer alone, it was as if the group suffered and tried to fight for his memory. It was a boy, Rui Filipe, and we were champions, I think, for him.
“In Liverpool they are going to suffer together. The club is a fantastic club. I think they decide to take away the shirt number 20. At Anfield he will always be part of the family and maybe they will lose a player, but maybe they win even more souls than what they have.”
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