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Liverpool's $30 million gesture to Jota's widow
SEN • September 27th, 2025 12:55 pm
Liverpool manager Arne Slot has confirmed the club has paid out almost $30 million to the wife and children of Diogo Jota, honouring their promise to pay out the late star’s contract in full.
The Portuguese striker was tragically killed alongside his brother after their car veered off a notorious road in the Spanish province of Zamora in July.
He was just 28-years-old and his brother Andre was 25.
Weeks before his death, Diogo had married his childhood sweetheart Rute Cardoso with whom he had three children.
In the immediate aftermath of his death, Liverpool vowed to take care of his family and Slot this week confirmed they had come good on that promise.
“Owners are mainly criticised, like managers, but the way they’ve handled this situation by paying his wife and his children all the money from the contract is … Maybe people think it’s normal, but it is not in football,” he said of club owners Fenway Sports Group.
“The way the fans conducted 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.”
Slot lifted the lid on what life at the club has been like without Jota. How hard it has been for them to move on but not forget.
“We have to train again,” he continued. “There are moments where I feel, ‘What must his wife and his children feel now?’
“It sounds so hard but our life continues.
“People expect from me that I prepare them forever and that sometimes feels a bit difficult knowing how hard it is for the family and for the parents in the phase they are still going through and will go through for the rest of their lives.
“Maybe people think it's normal, but it is not in football.”
Reinforcing the club’s commitment to the Jota family, Liverpool chairman Tom Werner said: "It was immediately important to us that we reach out to his widow and to make sure that she understood that we are a family.
"It is a cliché but we do think of ourselves as a family and we wanted to make sure she was well taken care of financially, and her children.
"It's very important for us to demonstrate that, whatever happens, we care about the footballer but we care even more about the individual."
