Moving Tributes To Star Whose Legacy Was Huge
Wolves today lost one of their finest players of the last 50 years. John Lalley pays an emotional tribute to Diogo Jota, both a League champion with Liverpool and a Nations League winner with Portugal this summer, and now cruelly taken away in his prime.
Dioga Jota in the colours he wore to such brilliant effect.
A glorious summer’s day, a new season beckoning, Billy Wright’s magnificent statue shimmering in the sunlight…..but Molineux was in sombre mood.
Death has a habit of intruding when we are least prepared and the abrupt passing of Diogo Jota leaves an irreplaceable void.
As soon as the dreadful news was revealed this morning, a steady stream of Wolves fans laid tributes of flowers, scarves, photographs and other personal mementoes at the base of the Wright sculpture.
The pilgrimage continued throughout the day. By early evening, the plinth had been transformed into a meaningful and colourful tribute with a wreath on behalf of the club articulating the feelings of all of us there.
The message above the Wolves’ logo simply said ‘Diogo, your goals, desire, fight and hunger to win lit up Molineux. Your legacy will forever live on in the hearts of everyone at Wolves. In loving memory of Diogo and Andre. Rest peacefully. From everyone at the club, and the whole Wolves’ family.’
Hand-written tributes on cards and shirts expressed personal feelings with the number 18 standing starkly as a reminder of Jota’s squad number here.
Action pictures and portraits of him in Wolves’ colours rekindled wonderful memories of his three magnificent seasons with us. Intrinsic to the Portuguese influence that transformed the club under Nuno Espírito Santo, Jota adapted superbly to English football. In that initial season, he was top scorer as the club stormed to promotion from the EFL Championship.
Deceptively strong, sharp and elusive, he was not fazed one iota by the elevation to Premier League football. He played a major role in two of the best seasons the club have enjoyed since winning the League Cup in 1980.
He dovetailed superbly with Raul Jimenez in attack and helped Wolves into the Europa League after an absence of almost 40 years from competitive European competition.
There are so many fabulous memories. Like of him galloping half the length of Molineux in stoppage time to win the game against Leicester and complete a superb hat-trick in the process; his back-to-back hat-tricks against Besiktas and Espanyol that came with finishing of the highest quality; breezing past Luke Shaw like a thoroughbred to secure a win against Manchester United and send Molineux into absolute bedlam.
All great goals but an abiding memory for me remains the one from the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in 2020. Having already created a goal for Matt Doherty and then scored himself, he fashioned the winner for Jimenez quite magnificently. Out wide left on half-way, he received a clearance, shimmied brilliantly past the covering defence, accelerated rapidly and delivered the perfect feed for the Mexican to secure the game.
Jota simply produced the perfect performance and it was a joy to watch. So poignant it was that, literally days prior to this tragedy, Wolves chairman Jeff Shi admitted that one of his most regrettable decisions was sanctioning the forward’s departure.
Those of us congregating by the Wright statue today were in some small way trying to welcome him back to Molineux. It was in the saddest of circumstances but was the least we could do. What a fine player he was. So glad he graced the Wolves!