Liverpool manager Arne Slot has confirmed that the club\u2019s owners paid the full contents of Diogo Jota\u2019s contract to the forward\u2019s family after his death over the summer. Slot described the gesture as exceptional and stressed that such moves are not common in the game.<\/p>\n
Rute Cardoso had three children with Jota and the couple were married just 11 days before he died. Slot made clear that no amount of money can replace that loss, but he underlined the significance of the club\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cOwners are mainly criticised, like managers, but the way they\u2019ve handled this situation, by paying his wife and his children all the money from the contract [is commendable],\u201d Slot told TNT Sports . \u201cMaybe people think it\u2019s normal, but it is not in football.\u201d<\/p>\n
Liverpool\u2019s spending this summer has been record breaking. The club reportedly spent as much as \u00a3415 million ($553.2 million) on transfer fees before wages, and the remaining two years on Jota\u2019s deal is thought to cost in the region of \u00a310\u201315 million.<\/p>\n
Slot also highlighted the response across Merseyside and the role it has played in the period since the tragedy. \u201cThe grief of the city, that is what makes it so special for me to work at this club,\u201d he continued. \u201cThe way the fans conducted themselves after that tragedy, how many flowers there were, all the memorials, I almost get emotional thinking about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s unbelievable what our fans have done\u2014and our players as well, the way they\u2019ve conducted themselves in and around the funeral, then we had to train again.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are moments where I feel what his wife and children must feel, because it sounds so hard. But our lives continue, people expect from me that I prepare them for everything.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat sometimes feels a bit difficult, knowing how hard it is for the family, for the parents, who are in the phase they are still going through and will go through for the rest of their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
On top of the Liverpool windfall, Jota\u2019s family have another dutiful provider in the form of R\u00faben Neves. The former Wolverhampton Wanderers midfielder played with his Portuguese compatriot for club and country, striking up a friendship which Neves is adamant will stretch beyond both their lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arne Slot: Liverpool owners paid Diogo Jota’s contract to his wife and children; fans mourn. deeply.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3089,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,969],"tags":[299,239],"class_list":["post-3090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","category-premier-league","tag-arne-slot","tag-diogo-jota"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}