Diogo Jota and The Athletic's Liverpool coverage: A message to our subscribers

New York Times

10-07-2025

Even now, a week on, it doesn't seem real.
Diogo Jota should have been preparing to return to Liverpool this week after a glorious summer when he became a Premier League champion, a UEFA Nations League winner with Portugal and a husband to his long-term partner, Rute.
Instead, his death at the age of 28 in a car crash that also claimed the life of his younger brother, Andre Silva, has left a club, a city and a sport gripped by grief.
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In the past week, The Athletic tried to do justice to both Diogo's remarkable talent as a player and the qualities which made so many people warm to him: his spirit, generosity and determination.
Andy Jones wrote about why Diogo will be remembered as far more than just a footballer; we have published moving personal reflections from James Pearce, Tim Spiers and Caoimhe O'Neill, all of whom interviewed him at Liverpool and previous club Wolves; Simon Hughes and Steve Madeley reported from Merseyside and Wolverhampton as fans tried to come to terms with the tragedy; and Jack Lang went to Portugal to see how Diogo's death had impacted his home city of Gondomar.
His life and legacy were also discussed on special editions of The Athletic FC and Walk On podcasts, and we reported on the touching tributes to Diogo at the Club World Cup and at Euro 2025 — the latter especially poignant, given he was such a strong ally of women's football.
Since the accident, we have deliberately not published any Liverpool articles that didn't relate to Diogo. It simply didn't feel right to be writing about football when a family, a club and a city were so consumed by sorrow.
But just as Liverpool are trying to restore a semblance of normality to the club, with players now returning for pre-season testing and a friendly now confirmed as taking place against Preston on Sunday, we also have to think about returning to our usual coverage.
There is no 'right' time to do this. We appreciate that some of you may be struggling to even think about football right now; others may see a 'normal' football article as a welcome escape from the sadness of the last few days. Both responses are completely valid.
But with the new season now just a month away, you'll start to see Liverpool articles appearing on the range of subjects we usually cover: tactics, profiles, financial matters and, yes — in due course — transfers.
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We will, of course, be considerate in terms of what we publish and mindful that many fans will still feel raw.
And this doesn't mean the end of our coverage of Diogo. Far from it: we will continue to report on the investigation into what happened in the crash — you can read Daniel Taylor and Guillermo Rai's powerful account of what we know so far here — and there will be other significant moments in the weeks and months to come when he will be at the forefront of our coverage. In many ways, the whole season will be viewed through the prism of his loss.
If there are topics you would like to see covered by The Athletic in the coming weeks, please let us know in the comments below.
And thank you for your continued support of our coverage.