Liverpool plans to pay tribute and honour Diogo Jota confirmed by Kop chief
Liverpool CEO Billy Hogan has said the club are drawing up plans to honour the lives of Diogo Jota and Andre Silva following their tragic deaths.
Liverpool star Jota, 28, and his younger brother, 25, died after a road traffic accident in northern Spain on Thursday July 3. They were travelling to Santander to board a ferry back to England, ahead of Jota's return to Merseyside for pre-season.
Tributes have poured in from around the footballing world and a number of Liverpool stars - including Virgil van Dijk and manager Arne Slot, as well as a number of club staff and officials - and Jota's former Portugal team-mates paid their respects at his funeral in his home town of Gondomar, Portugal, on Saturday.
On Merseyside, supporters have been paying their respects to the pair by laying flowers, shirts and scarves outside of Anfield's Main Stand.
On Wednesday afternoon, Hogan and members of the club's executive team visited the memorial site to pay tribute to Jota, an "incredible footballer and really good person".
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Speaking to LFC TV, Hogan said: "First, I would just say that obviously we're here today – and so many people have been here before – to just offer condolences and thoughts and prayers for Diogo and for Andre, and most importantly for their family.
"It has only been a couple of days but, as we all know, it has been just absolutely devastating. We're a club in mourning. We have all been completely shocked by the situation and, again, can only think of what this has meant to their family.
"What we see behind us and the overwhelming outpouring of support and emotion and grief and love – having a chance to walk down the row here and read the cards and read the messages, our anthem, You'll Never Walk Alone, it does mean something.
"In this case, I think everybody just feels so passionately about making sure that we remember the two boys but also that we support their family, and we're going to work through this together."
After the decision was made last week to postpone Liverpool's return to pre-season training, Arne Slot and his players reported back to the club's training base at Kirkby on Tuesday. The Reds face Championship side Preston North End at Deepdale on Sunday afternoon, which will be the club's first match since Jota's passing.
Hogan confirmed that Jota will be honoured before Sunday's game, while "medium and longer term" tributes will be confirmed at a later stage.
"As a club, there's been lots of ideas and certainly within the supporter base lots of ideas," added Hogan. "That's something we'll take forward with the family and we want to have those conversations at the appropriate time.
"Obviously they have gone through an unimaginable situation over the course of the last several days. We certainly will, obviously, remember both Andre and Diogo and at the appropriate time we'll make those plans clear.
"We've got the match on Sunday at Deepdale and we'll of course remember them at that match. Then the tour, then we come back to Anfield and then the season starts, so we're thinking about all of those moments.
"Of course, we want to make sure we do the right thing and appropriately remember both Andre and Diogo."
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