“So Many Brilliant Memories” – David Lynch Pays Tribute to Liverpool’s Diogo Jota | OneFootball

Diogo Jota: The Man, The Memories, The Mourning

Diogo Jota was the type of player who made football feel fun again. Not in the grandiose way of a headline-grabbing superstar but in the way he made you believe in moments. Proper moments. Goals that mattered. Games that turned. And now, he’s gone. It doesn’t make sense. It shouldn’t make sense.

As David Lynch told Dave Davis on Anfield Index, the words still don’t quite settle. “I just feel like it’s not even close to sinking in because you just can’t comprehend that something like this could happen.” And that’s it, isn’t it? Footballers live in a different world. Immortal in some ways. But Jota’s sudden passing, alongside his brother, proves otherwise. Real life crashes in and leaves only grief behind.

Shock That Shakes Foundations

Lynch captured the raw disbelief of it all. “People die at young ages all of the time and all of us have been touched by that in some way, but we put footballers on a pedestal and think that these things don’t happen to them. For someone who plays for Liverpool to be cut down in the prime of his life, and his brother as well, it’s just devastating and it was so unexpected.”

That’s what hit hardest. Jota wasn’t just a name on the teamsheet. He was in his prime. There was more to come. More goals against Arsenal, more last-gasp winners, more dartboard banter and grinning celebrations. And now the echoes of those moments are all we have left.

“It’s something that will go on into the season and for a long, long time,” Lynch continued. “It’s just incredibly sad and it’s going to be that way for a long time.”

More Than A Footballer

Players come and go but some stick. Jota stuck. Lynch referenced Andy Robertson’s description of him as “the most British foreign player,” not because of clichés but because of his darts, his horse-racing, his unpretentiousness. He was a universal teammate, not caught in national cliques or dressing-room politics. “He really did seem to be someone who was liked by everyone,” Lynch said.

The goals mattered. Of course they did. But it’s the man people are talking about now. “There’s so many brilliant memories of him, as someone who loved a goal in a big game.” And he did. Fulham, when Liverpool needed him back. Arsenal, where he always found the net. That Everton finish, under the lights at Anfield, cool as you like in front of the Kop. “That Everton goal might be the most perfect last goal that anyone could score in their career… I could not think of a more Jota goal and I will always cherish that one.”

Photo: IMAGO

Together In Grief

Tragedy doesn’t respect colours or rivalries. Football remembers that when it matters. “Everton have more than played their part,” Lynch said. “Just a quick word on them, Everton are an unbelievable football club with unbelievable people in it and they are always there at Liverpool’s lowest moments to show support.”

It’s easy to talk about fan rivalry, but this was something else. A sea of scarves and shirts at Anfield. “I’m blown away by the size of that Anfield tribute and it just shows the strength of feeling, not just for the footballer, but for the man.” That’s where the real grief lies. Not in the stat sheets or the transfer rumours. But in his family. His wife. His children. His parents.

“The family element of it is the hardest hitting part of it all. His wife and his poor children and then obviously his parents and the loss that they have got to contend with… Even in a few weeks it might feel for the rest of us that it has eased off a little bit, but they have got a horrible, long road ahead of them and I don’t know how you recover from something like this.”

A Tribute Beyond Words

Lynch summed it up with heartfelt honesty: “It’s senseless and it’s so hard to get your head around and my heart really does go out to them.”

You don’t get over something like this. You carry it. And you remember. Jota gave us enough to remember. And Liverpool, as a club and a city, will carry him.