Humble, generous and a star – Jota left his mark on everyone he met

Teresa Barbosa was there from the very beginning.

Barbosa was the first face Diogo Jota saw when he arrived aged 16 at Pacos de Ferreira’s dormitory from his hometown of Gondomar.

From cleaning to doing laundry and cooking meals, she did a bit of everything as she took care of players who came from other Portuguese cities and from abroad to join the side based in the town of the same name just outside Porto.

They usually joined Pacos’ youth teams and then left the dormitory after being promoted to the senior side. Jota was there for three years, however.

At one point, he was the only first-team footballer living in the dormitory, despite the club offering him an apartment.

The forward could have left way earlier, but he remained on his own in the room he used to share with right-back Fred Martins until the day he packed his things to join Atletico Madrid in 2016.

Jota just didn’t feel the need to move out.

Above all, he considered Barbosa to be his family away from home.

“A lot of other people in my situation would’ve made a different choice, but there you go, everyone has their own path, and I believe that says a bit about who I am,” the former Liverpool player would say to anyone who asked him about it.

Jota, who tragically died in a car accident in Spain alongside his brother Andre Silva in early July, embodied that simplicity throughout his life.

As CNN pundit Sergio Pires reflected: “He was an ordinary boy living in a world of superstars.”

And that’s how he will be remembered when Liverpool face Crystal Palace in the Community Shield on Sunday in their first competitive match since his death.

The Reds fans have vowed to never forget their number 20.

The same way he never forgot those who helped him along the way.

When Jota married his high school sweetheart Rute Cardoso in June, he made sure Barbosa was invited to the ceremony.

“He went to England and, after all these years, he could’ve forgotten everything he lived through at Pacos, but no, he never forgot me. He invited me to his big day and sat me with his family,” Barbosa revealed to the Jornal de Noticias.

Even from afar, the Portugal hero remained deeply connected to his roots.

For his wedding, he wanted no presents. Instead, guests were encouraged to donate to groups such as the local fire brigade and animal welfare organisations.

“Jota had the biggest smile – whenever he smiled, everyone around him felt happier,” Vasco Seabra, one of his earliest mentors at Pacos and currently in charge of Portuguese top-flight club Arouca, told BBC Sport.

“Talking about Jota is talking about someone who was always incredibly humble. He had a very close relationship with Dona Teresa, the lady who looked after the dormitory and was a great cook. He felt truly at home there. It shows the kind of person he was – how he looked at people.

“He always saw people for who they really were, appreciated those who cared for him and had supported him over the years.”

The Portugal star left a mark on everyone he met.

So much so that Seabra went above and beyond to help him fulfil his dreams, emailing the national under-19 coach with a report detailing why the striker deserved a place. It worked as the head coach came to watch him.

Jota would go on to win a Premier League title and score 65 goals in 182 appearances for Liverpool, but he never lost sight of where he came from.

He would regularly send boxes of branded boots to Pacos and ask their kit man to give them to the kids in the youth teams who needed them most.

That’s even more meaningful considering that growing up in Gondomar, on the edge of Porto, his parents couldn’t afford to buy boots for him.

No matter the distance, Jota was always within reach.

“He never changed his phone number after leaving Pacos. He didn’t need to. He always answered when people called,” said former club president Paulo Meneses.

“Sometimes, tragic circumstances like his can make us overly generous in the way we speak about those who’ve passed. But that wasn’t the case with him. He truly had two qualities that are essential in a person – humility and gratitude – and in him, they were undeniable.

“The last time we were promoted to the top flight in 2018-19, he sent me a message, humbly asking if he could come and watch. Then, on the day we won the league title, he sent me a message five seconds after the game had finished, saying, ‘we’ve done it again’. This was someone who knew his origins.”

None of this will come as a surprise to those who shared a dressing room with him.

Former Liverpool and now Brentford goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher recalled how they would get together to follow Portuguese lower tiers.

“You became one of my closest friends in football. We bonded over everything sports-related, watching any football match we could find – often your brother Andre’s games on your iPad,” Kelleher wrote on social media.

It seems almost contradictory that someone so deeply connected to his upbringing could still adapt so seamlessly to wherever he went – whether it was Gondomar, Pacos, Porto, Wolverhampton or Liverpool.

“He was the most British foreign player I’ve ever met,” said Liverpool’s left-back Andy Robertson. “We used to joke he was really Irish… I’d try to claim him as Scottish, obviously. I even called him Diogo MacJota.

“We’d watch the darts together, enjoy the horse racing. Going to Cheltenham this season was a highlight – one of the best times we had.”

It didn’t matter to Jota that he had an academy named after him back home. Nor that a stand was built thanks to his transfer. Or even that he was scoring goals in the Champions League.

He was still the same guy who had overcome the odds to become a footballer.

“He was an incredible young man – strong personality, great character, and hugely competitive, always with a burning desire to win. But more than anything, he valued honesty, respected people who were straight with him, and had little time for those who beat around the bush,” said Seabra.