Latest news with #YoullNeverWalkAlone
Sky News
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sky News
Liverpool strikers copy Jota's 'crocodile celebration' after scoring in first game since his death
Liverpool players and fans have paid tribute to Dioga Jota at the Reds' first game since the Portuguese forward died in a car crash with his brother. The Merseyside club's supporters held Jota banners in the stands at the Deepdale Stadium during their side's pre-season friendly away match against Preston. There was a rendition of the club's anthem You'll Never Walk Alone which was performed by Claudia Rose Maguire - wife of former Preston player Sean Maguire - shortly before the match kicked off at 3pm. Preston captain Ben Whiteman laid a wreath in front of the visiting supporters before the game. In a reference to the late Liverpool player's shirt number, an image of Jota and Silva was displayed on the Deepdale's big screen in the 20th minute. Fans of both clubs broke into applause and a rendition of a song about Jota. Around 13 minutes later, Liverpool player Conor Bradley put his side 1-0 up before celebrating in a subdued manner with his teammates. Liverpool striker Darwin Nunez scored in the 53rd minute to make it 2-0 and marked the goal by doing Jota's trademark "crocodile celebration", where he would do a snapping motion with his arms. Nunez also sat on the grass and pretended to play a computer game - another of Jota's celebrations. Preston pulled one back in the 83rd minute before Liverpool forward Cody Gakpo made it 3-1 five minutes later. Gakpo also did Jota's famous crocodile celebration after scoring the goal. Newly-married Jota, 28, died alongside his 25-year-old brother Andre Silva, a footballer who played in Portugal's second division with Penafiel, when the Lamborghini they were travelling in crashed in Zamora in northern Spain on 3 July. At Sunday's match, Liverpool players and supporters were seen in deep reflection during a one-minute silence in memory of the brothers moments before kick off. Both teams' players wore black armbands during the match. Children were among those who paid tribute in the stands with one boy holding a banner reading: "Forever missed, forever loved, forever remembered, forever our number 20." It was one of many banners paying tribute to Jota, while some fans have been seen wearing T-shirts and scarves featuring the footballer's image. Liverpool supporters also sung the first of many renditions of a song about Jota 20 minutes before kick-off. The tributes come after Liverpool retired the number 20 shirt Jota wore at all levels of the club, including the men's and women's first teams and academy squads, in his memory. 4:01 The match programme for Sunday's game featured a black and white image on the front showing Jota holding the Premier League trophy he won with the Reds in April. Liverpool teammates joined members of Jota's family, including his wife Rute, at a huge memorial site outside Anfield on Friday. There had been questions over whether Sunday's game would go ahead as Liverpool players - several of whom attended the funeral of the two brothers in Portugal last Saturday - were given extra time before reporting for pre-season training. Mohamed Salah captained a young Liverpool side for the game, with Giorgi Mamardashvili getting the nod in goal and fellow new signings Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez among the substitutes. New £100m midfielder Florian Wirtz was not in the match day squad. Liverpool manager Arne Slot, who also visited Anfield to pay his respects last week, said in an interview on Liverpool FC's website before today's match: "We will always carry him with us in our hearts, in our thoughts, wherever we go." He added: "In any moment we are here, we will carry him with us in our thoughts and in our hearts. To retire his shirt is the one thing we could, should and have done... "I think what I take comfort in [is that] in the last month of his life, he was a champion in everything. A champion for his family, which is the main and most important thing, because he got married." He added: "A champion for his country because he won the Nations League, [with] a country that he cared about so much, because he also wore the flag when we had celebrations. "And of course, a champion for us by winning the Premier League."
BBC News
04-08-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Anfield remembers Jota and Silva in Bilbao friendly
Liverpool paid tribute to Diogo Jota in their first match at Anfield since the late forward's legend Phil Thomson and Athletic president Jon Uriarte brought wreaths out on to the pitch and laid them on the edge of the six-yard box before the opening billboards around Anfield read 'Rest in Peace Diogo Jota and Andre Silva - You'll Never Walk Alone', while fans sang about supporters also held up flags and banners remembering their number 20 - a number that has been retired by the club this sets of players, coaches and fans applauded as the game was stopped in the 20th more over here
BBC News
31-07-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
'My DNA is in the ground'
We know the relationship between a football fan and their club is a special one so we asked you to share why you fell in love with is a selection of your submissions: Rita: My Dad grew up on Wilburn Street. When he looked left out of his front door, Goodison Park was right there. Him and my whole family (bar one cousin on my Mum's side) were Evertonians. As a child in the 70s, I didn't really get football apart from the goals, but the thing that made me support Liverpool was their song. I first heard You'll Never Walk Alone at the 1971 FA Cup final (we lost to Arsenal) and that was that. By the 1974 FA Cup final (we beat Newcastle), my teddy bear was wearing a red and white scarf that my Mum had "helped" me knit and I had team posters on my bedroom wall. I've followed them ever since. So join the conversation and send your best photos about why you love first visit to the stadium? A special kit? An amazing away trip?Send us your pictures and stories
South China Morning Post
24-07-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Why for one Liverpool fan, the ‘You'll Never Walk Alone' team anthem means a little more
Ang has never travelled to Anfield for a live match, but spent about 6,000 Malaysian ringgit (US$1,423) on a ticket, hotel and airfare to come to Hong Kong. 'I felt as though whenever I was watching a Liverpool match, my boyfriend was there with me, and that was what 'You'll Never Walk Alone' meant to me.' 'My first match with him was the 7-0 win over Manchester United [in March] … but he passed away due to heart failure later in the year – there were no symptoms,' she said. 'Since then, I have become a more devoted and dedicated Reds fan. Ang, 26, actually started following football by watching Italy's Serie A and supporting AC Milan in 2022. However, the teacher in her native country began to read more about the Merseyside team because of her boyfriend, who had been supporting the Reds for more than 20 years. Vinie Ang Weng-nee, a Reds fan since early 2023, flew in from Malaysia to pursue her first overseas tour to watch the club. Among the thousands of Liverpool fans who flocked to Kai Tak Stadium to watch Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk, Dominik Szoboszlai and other favourites train on Thursday was one for whom the words 'You'll Never Walk Alone' resonate especially strongly. 'It's easier coming here than to visit the United Kingdom, but I will go to Anfield eventually this year or next,' she said. 'I decided to come when the trip was announced earlier in the year.' But there was another reason Ang had decided to come to Hong Kong. 'The reason for my trip was really [Diogo] Jota,' she said, speaking about the Portuguese star who died in a car crash a few weeks ago. 'He's the first Liverpool player [other than Salah] I knew, and I really liked him. 'I was so looking forward to seeing him, he's an intelligent and down-to-earth player … I was devastated to hear about his passing away, and I am still emotional [speaking to you now].' Ang was just one of thousands of Liverpool fans of all ages seen making their way to Kai Tak Stadium from the nearby Sung Wong Toi and Kai Tak Mass Transit Railway (MTR) stations hours before the open training session. Fans donning Reds' jerseys – home, away or even their third – with more recent players' names made up most of the bigger numbers, with names such as the undisputed king, Salah, to recent additions such as Darwin Nunez. Some female fans also showed love to Wataru Endo, only the second Japanese player in the club's 133-year history. Some players – Roberto Firmino or Trent Alexander-Arnold – might have left the team, but they remained in the fans' hearts, or on their jerseys at the very least. Some chose to honour and remember the late Jota. Thousands of Liverpool fans attended the training session at Kai Tak Stadium on Thursday. Photo: AFP For Liverpool fans, supporting the 20-time league champions could be described as a 'religious' thing. Mino Cheng Chan-kwong, chairman of the Official Liverpool Supporters Club Hong Kong, said the club was all about 'the human touch' for him. Having first watched the Reds in the early 1990s, Cheng said he was moved by the club's decision to honour the 97 fans who died in the Hillsborough disaster by updating the club's emblem. 'And then there was Jota, and immortalising his No 20 jersey … supporting Liverpool gives me a very strong feeling that we're all in one big family,' said the 43-year-old, who picked the 4-3 Premier League win over Newcastle in 1996 as his all-time favourite moment in three decades as a fan. 'It's almost like a religion. I also like AC Milan and I still do today, but the other teams are not comparable when it comes to the club motto, YNWA – that's how I feel.' Advertisement
BBC News
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
'Singing Diogo Jota tribute at Liverpool friendly was emotional'
The singer who performed the Liverpool anthem as a tribute to Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva ahead of the Reds' pre-season friendly at Preston has said it was a "very emotional" and "special" and Liverpool forward Jota and Silva, also a professional footballer, died in a car crash on 3 July in the Spanish province of Rose Maguire sang You'll Never Walk Alone before kick-off at the match, which is Liverpool's first since the two men were killed. She said she "didn't want to look at the fans" as she was performing because she "would have just burst into tears". "Hearing them sing along is something that I will remember for ever," she whose husband is former North End player Sean Maguire, also sang Preston's club anthem, Can't Help Falling In Love With You. Being asked to perform both songs "was probably the scariest phone call I've ever had", Maguire told BBC Radio Lancashire, as she had only prepared to sing PNE's anthem."Then you get told you'll be singing the biggest song ever, You'll Never Walk Alone," she said."The whole weekend in my mum and dad's house I just sang that and the neighbours must have just been pulling their ears out asking 'why is she singing this song over and over again?'."I just wanted to do it justice and have it perfectly sung."As Maguire sang a visibly emotional Preston captain Ben Whiteman laid a wreath in front of the travelling Liverpool away end, filled with flags and scarves commemorating the former Porto and Wolves attacker, loudly sang Jota's song as the players walked out before a minute's she had finished performing and looked around at the crowd and players, Maguire said she felt like she "was going to fall to the floor because of all the nerves and the relief".But "all the messages and comments I've got from fans has just been so overwhelming and I'm just so grateful for them," she added. Listen to the best of BBC Radio Lancashire on BBC Sounds and follow BBC Lancashire on Facebook, X and Instagram and watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer.
