Diogo Jota's loving relationship with ‘number one fan' Rute Cardoso from meeting at school to heartbreaking wedding post
When his burgeoning career in their native Portugal resulted in a move to Spanish giants Atletico Madrid, she described herself as his 'best friend' and 'number one fan'.
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Diogo Jota and Rute Cardoso married on June 22
Credit: Not known, clear with picture desk
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The couple were together for 13 years
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They were joined at the ceremony by their three children
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Rute supported Jota from an early age
Credit: Instagram
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Their youngest child was born in December
Credit: Instagram
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The pair were childhood sweethearts
Credit: Instagram
It was a shared ambition that would take them back to home town club Porto and then Wolverhampton Wanderers before his trophy-laden glory years at Liverpool's Anfield.
A couple who met at school aged 13, their marriage a mere 11 days ago sealed a romance that had already produced three cherubic children. Joyous wedding photographs, showing a young family on life's great journey, are now heartbreaking to look at.
Sons Dinis, four, and Duarte, two, are in the same dark blue jackets, cream waistcoats and blue ties as their footballer father.
A baby girl, not named publicly, wears a miniature tiara and ivory-coloured gown to match her mother.
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READ MORE ON DIOGO JOTA
Now Ruta is a widow at 28. The children
Just 20 hours earlier, Diogo and Rute
Under one photo, she wrote, 'My dream came true' — to which Diogo had replied: 'But I'm the lucky one.'
Social media images show family life including trips to Lapland and Sardinia, photos with pet beagles and in red strips of Liverpool on the pitch at Anfield and at Wembley.
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It was a love forged in Portugal's beautiful second city Porto where forward Jota was born in December 1996.
His birth name was Diogo José Teixeira da Silva. As a promising, pacey young footballer he dropped his surname and used Jota which is the local pronunciation of 'J'.
'Heartbroken' Ronaldo leads tributes to Diogo Jota as football mourns Liverpool & Portugal star
Soon, his talents outgrew his local club Gondomar and, aged 16, he moved to lower league club Pacos de Ferreira.
Scout Ivo Rodrigues remembers watching Diogo in 2013.
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He said: 'My eyes were drawn to him like a magnet. He was the youngest on the pitch but I saw he was going to be a star. He could do things that other ones could not.'
But attempts by Ivo to sign him for Guimaraes proved fruitless.
The year before, an Instagram image showed him with Rute in hoodies and jeans acting like typical teenagers.
In 2015, Jota's career might have stalled before it really began.
Pre-season tests revealed a heart problem.
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Showing maturity beyond his years, he wrote: 'I knew it could mean quitting football, but I didn't believe for a second it was going to happen.'
A natural goalscorer, he would earn selection for Portugal's international youth teams and soon the big time beckoned.
He was snapped up by Spanish giants Atletico Madrid in 2016 when he was 19.
Rute wrote of his move: 'I'm anxious. Diogo only left this week, but I already miss him. We've been dating for four years and . . . it makes sense to follow him. In addition to being his girlfriend and best friend, I'm his number one fan, I want to be there.'
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However, Diogo would never play for the Atletico first team and a month after joining went out on loan to Portuguese giants Porto.
At the time, his brother Andre Silva, 25 — also killed in yesterday's fireball crash — was with Porto's youth set-up.
Scoring eight goals in 27 appearances, Diogo's performances earned him another loan move the next season — this time to England with Wolves, then in the Championship.
His 17 league goals helped Wolves win promotion to the Premier League and secured a permanent move for a reported £12million.
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Wolves finished seventh the next season as they qualified for the Europa League — a competition in which Diogo bagged an 11-minute hat-trick against Turkish side Besiktas after coming on as a sub.
In now poignant comments, he said after that game: 'It makes me proud. It's a story to tell my grandkids when I get old.'
He and Rute were able to enjoy the fruits of his success. Instagram photos she posted show her posing on his shoulders at Disneyland Paris and sight-seeing at the London Eye.
Captioning an image of them together on a sun-kissed beach in the Maldives, she wrote: 'And suddenly you see your entire future in one person.'
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In September 2020, Liverpool snapped Diogo up for £45million. He and Rute had made it to one of world football's greatest clubs in the richest and most glamorous league.
Then-Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said of Diogo: 'He has the speed, he can combine with other players, can defend, can press. It gives us real options for different systems.
'He's 23, still far away from being kind of a finished article — he has so much potential.'
A player blessed with the knack of scoring vital goals, he soon became a Kop favourite.
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A terrace chant for him, including a reference to Portuguese great Luis Figo, went: 'He's a lad from Portugal, better than Figo don't you know, oh his name is Diogo!'
In the 2021-22 season, he scored 21 in 55 games — part of an impressive 65 goals in 182 appearances for Liverpool.
Hampered by injuries last season, his final goal for
In the Merseyside derby, he slalomed past Everton defenders in a packed box before slotting the ball home. His final match was for Portugal — his 49th cap — a victory over Spain to win the Uefa Nations League.
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The close season gave him a chance to marry Rute.
Beneath a photo of the elegant couple at the altar, the new bride wrote on social media: 'Yes to forever.'
Diogo once described himself as 'a small guy that came from Gondomar, where I had this dream'.
With Rute at his side, he perhaps achieved more than he possibly imagined.
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A tragedy that, at 28, this supremely talented player and dearly loved husband and dad had so much more to give.
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'Was it worth the £40,000 you paid for a ticket?' The party was kickstarted in the streets of Cardiff long before the brothers took to the stage for the first time in 16 years tonight. Gates officially opened at 5pm and tens of thousands of fans poured into the arena to bag a prime spot. Advertisement Oasis , who clocked up over 70 million record sales worldwide after forming in Manchester in 1991, split in 2009 following a fall out between the brothers. Following huge shows here tonight and tomorrow, Oasis will take a short break before kicking off their run of shows at Heaton Park in Manchester on July 11. The brothers are set to When they announced their reunion last year, their 1994 breakthrough album Definitely Maybe hit the No1 spot in the charts. Advertisement Live Forever and Don't Look Back In Anger also re-entered the Top Ten singles chart as excited fans reminisced with old favourites. Advertisement During his last moments, the singer had the rock band's 1994 hit from their debut album Definitely Maybe playing out loud. A close friend told The Sun: "You might have thought Tom would opt for something by The Wanted but Oasis' Live Forever sums him up perfectly - he was a rockstar and that's how he wants to be remembered. "It's a real anthem to strength and defiance and some of the lyrics really speak to his struggle. "Like the track says, Tom really will live forever in his children, his fans and his music." Advertisement The singer had everyone he loved around him in his final moments, including his family, closest friends and Tom was given just 18 months to live after he was diagnosed with a It comes after touching pictures shared by the Liverpool Football Club showed an emotional Henderson mourning the loss of his former teammate Jota outside the Anfield Stadium earlier today. The ex-Liverpool skipper is one of the many footie stars to have mourned the loss. Advertisement Henderson and Jota played together at Liverpool between September 2020 and June 2023. Meanwhile, Jota's grieving wife was consoled by relatives amid emotional scenes at his funeral chapel today. Rute Cardoso - who married the Liverpool ace just 11 days earlier - arrived at Sao Cosme Chapel in his home town of Gondomar near Porto, northern Portugal, early this morning. Rute, the 28-year-old mum of the striker's three young children, returned with her partner's body after Advertisement Jota, 28, died instantly when his hired acid green £210,000 Lamborghini supercar suffered a The brothers were killed instantly in the horror en route to the Spanish port city of Santander to catch a ferry to the UK after the Portugal star was urged not to travel by plane following lung surgery. Their distraught mother Isabel and their grandfather were also spotted at the chapel this morning. Tearful family members were seen hugging each other before walking together towards the chapel. Advertisement 13 Liam and Noel Gallagher perform on stage in Munich on February 27, 2009 Credit: Getty 13 Fans mourn Jota at Anfield Stadium in Liverpool Credit: SWNS 13 13 Oasis pose for photos ahead of a concert in Hong Kong, 2006 Credit: AP Advertisement
