Coady was Molineux skipper during Portuguese star Jota's three seasons at Wolves and also said the forward was 'born to play in the Premier League'.
Tributes have flooded in around the world as Liverpool frontman Jota, 28, lost his life alongside his brother Andre Silva during a crash in Spain in the early hours of Thursday morning.
"I think we'll all remember where we were, but it goes bigger than football what we're all feeling now," Coady told BBC Sport.
"This has hit everybody hard. And it will hit everybody hard for a long, long time because Diogo was a fantastic human being, an amazing friend, an amazing husband, an amazing father and an absolutely incredible footballer for all the clubs he has played for.
"He was an unbelievable person. This is celebrating an incredible human being. A human being who should never have left us this early and this (early) into an amazing career."
Coady, 32 and now of Leicester City, added: "You could see it in his first session - that tenacity and the will to win was like no other.
"He was the heart and soul of the dressing room. He had a quiet way of going about himself. But you knew you could go to him about anything. For me as a captain, it was an honour and a dream to play with him."