LIVERPOOL – Liverpool will pay out the remainder of late striker Diogo Jota’s contract to his family, Reds head coach Arne Slot has confirmed.
The game is still in mourning after Anfield hero Jota was tragically killed alongside his brother, Andre Silva, in a car accident on July 3 when travelling through northern Spain.
Jota had married childhood sweetheart Rute Cardoso just 11 days before his death. The pair share three young children.
In the days following the 28-year-old’s death, reports indicated that the Anfield club would honour the remaining years on his deal. Jota was understood to have been earning around £140 000 per week and had two years remaining on his contract at a value of around £14 million.
This week, the Reds’ commitment has been confirmed, with Slot detailing the toll of the tragic event over the summer and hailing the club’s ‘not normal’ gesture.
‘Unfortunately, we had to bring one player more in than we were… than what was the plan,’ the Dutchman told TNT Sports. ‘That’s why our spending was higher than intended.
‘The grief of the city, that is what makes it for me so special to work at this club. To work at a club where there is success and there is a parade, of course this parade is bigger than any parade everywhere around the world.
‘But the way they conducted, the fans themselves, after that tragedy. How many flowers there were, all the memorials, I can almost get emotional thinking about it.
‘It’s unbelievable what our fans have done. And our players as well, the way they have conducted themselves in and around the funeral. And then we have to train again.
‘And there are moments where I feel, “What must his wife and his children feel now?”.
‘Because it sounds so hard… our life continues. People expect from me that I prepared them forever. And that sometimes feels a bit difficult, knowing how hard it is for the family and for the parents.
‘The phase they are still going through and will go through for the rest of their lives.
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