{"id":242263,"date":"2025-07-06T08:48:19","date_gmt":"2025-07-06T08:48:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/242263\/"},"modified":"2025-07-06T08:48:19","modified_gmt":"2025-07-06T08:48:19","slug":"diogo-jotas-humble-upbringing-beautifully-described-by-father-liverpool-fc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/242263\/","title":{"rendered":"Diogo Jota’s humble upbringing beautifully described by father – Liverpool FC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Months after Diogo Jota<\/a> officially became a Liverpool player his father reflected fondly and proudly of his son\u2019s journey, words that are now especially poignant.<\/strong> <\/p>\n

There can be few words to convey the devastation the Jota family are currently facing after the tragic deaths of Diogo and Andre.<\/p>\n

The brothers were laid to rest<\/a> on Saturday in their hometown of Gondomar, Portugal, with Liverpool players and staff in attendance to pay their respects.<\/p>\n

Diogo and Andre were the only children of Joaquim and Isabel Silva, and their pride in their children was underlined when they spoke to Maisfutebol<\/a> in 2020, months after Liverpool signed their No. 20.<\/p>\n

What you will find in the words to follow is the story of a humble family who did everything to support the dreams of their two sons. <\/p>\n

\u201cDiogo only saw that in front of him. In his grandmother\u2019s backyard, he broke many pots and plants,\u201d Joaquim Silva, his father, reflected.<\/p>\n

\"Diogo<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a space measuring three meters by 15. He spent a lot of his free time there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing we wanted was for him to play sports, so that he would be physically and mentally healthy. At the same time, that way we would always know where he was and we felt that he was well looked after.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe started out as a left midfielder. He was forced to do that to improve his left foot. And it worked. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe then moved on to attacking midfielder, number ten. And then he was a forward and left winger. Diogo didn\u2019t really like being a winger, because he wasn\u2019t a player for crossing. But he grew up playing in that position.<\/p>\n

\"LIVERPOOL,<\/p>\n

\u201cThe feedback from those in charge at Pacos de Ferreira (where Jota turned professional) was great. They told us that Diogo was very responsible and mature. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat was enough for us, knowing that our son behaved well was better than seeing him become a star. We felt that our job had been well done.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe saw first-hand the difficulties his parents faced. We were factory workers, we didn\u2019t earn much above the minimum wage and we never hid our limitations from our children.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t easy having two sons in football and paying what we paid. Diogo never asked us for anything. He never asked us or said he would like to have branded football boots. <\/p>\n

\"LIVERPOOL, <\/p>\n

\u201cHe knew it wasn\u2019t possible, he already had that sensitivity. That\u2019s why he knows how to value things, value life.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll he wanted was football and the PlayStation. He never went out at night when he was a teenager, except for his birthday. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe never went out for dinner, nights out, nothing. He stayed at home. I even told him sometimes to go. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor Diogo, if there was football in the afternoon and PlayStation in the evening, that was fine. We gave him, with great difficulty, his first PlayStation and he didn\u2019t ask us for it. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe never asked us for anything.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Months after Diogo Jota officially became a Liverpool player his father reflected fondly and proudly of his son\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[763,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-242263","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-liverpool-fc","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114805427821023654","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}