Mourners continue to flood to Anfield to pay their respects to Diogo Jota.
The Liverpool forward tragically passed away on Thursday following a car crash in northern Spain that also claimed the life of his brother, Andre Silva. The siblings had been traveling back to the UK for the start of Jota’s preseason at Liverpool, which was originally planned for Monday.
Given the traumatic news of the last few days, the club has reportedly decided to push that back to Tuesday. Liverpool made the immediate decision to close all club stores, museums and tours until Monday, and fly flags at half-mast after Jota’s death was announced.
Fans immediately made their way to Anfield following the news on Thursday, with a makeshift shrine emerging outside the Main Stand.
Tributes from Liverpool fans included shirts, scarves, cards, flowers and even a gaming pad.
That is a nod to Jota’s favorite pastime: playing EA Sports’ FIFA video games. Now referred to as EA FC, incredibly, Jota once ranked as the No. 1 player on the globe in a FUT Champions Weekend League in FIFA 21, when he won all 30 games over a weekend.
Jota owned his own Esports team, Luna Esports, and memorably celebrated the winning goal in a 4-3 victory over Tottenham Hotspur by doing a gaming pose, where he sat down and mimed pressing buttons on a fake controller.
Everton leave tributes at Anfield following the death of Diogo Jota
Everton also paid tribute to Jota outside Anfield (Image: Getty Images)
It was a celebration repeated by several stars in the last few days as the global soccer community comes to terms with the death of the siblings.
Kylian Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele both repeated the celebration after scoring at the Club World Cup, as did Jota’s former teammate Diogo Goncalves.
As tributes continue to pour in for Jota, Liverpool has opted to extend the opening hours for the book of condolence at Anfield.
It was originally supposed to end at 17:00 BST on Sunday but has been extended to 20:00 BST on Tuesday, such is the level of desire for supporters to pay tribute to the 28-year-old.
As per Liverpool reporter James Pearce, such is the overwhelming show of affection for Jota, that tributes "now cover the entire length of the Main Stand and beyond, from Anfield Road to Walton Breck Road."
Jota played 182 times for Liverpool, scoring 65 goals. The last of those came in April’s Merseyside derby, when the Portugal international netted the only goal of the game.
Jota married his teenage sweetheart, Rute Cardoso, just 11 days before the tragic crash, and leaves behind three young children.