Live updates: The death of Liverpool star Diogo Jota

The death of Liverpool FC forward Diogo Jota will strike a chord with many of the city’s passionate football fans, who have often had to juggle tragedy and loss along with the club’s big wins – the most recent being a historic Premier League title secured just months ago.

Liverpool is the most decorated soccer team in England, but two disasters over the span of four years in the 1980s profoundly impacted both the city and the club.

It’s now been 40 years since the Heysel Disaster on May 29, 1985, in Brussels, Belgium, when Liverpool faced Italian side Juventus in the European Cup final. A stampede of Liverpool fans into a stand containing mostly Juventus supporters and the collapse of a retaining wall led to the death of 39 fans and left 600 injured.

Only four years later, on April 15, 1989, Liverpool was playing Nottingham Forest in an FA Cup semifinal at Hillsborough Stadium when overcrowded standing room only sections, or “pens”, of the stands led to the death of 97 Liverpool supporters.

It’s the worst ever sports disaster in British history, according to the BBC.

More recently, the celebration for the Reds’ 2025 Premier League title win was plunged into chaos after a van plowed into a crowd on Water Street in May.

The crash left 79 people injured, including four children, with four individuals trapped under the car needing rescuing. The police quickly released the information that the suspect was a 53-year-old White British man from the Liverpool area, and they were not treating the incident as terrorism.

Historically, supporters have banded together in the face of disaster. Liverpool is a city with a strong sense of self and community; Scousers protect each other, and the club’s motto, after all, is “You’ll never walk alone.”

Liverpool forward Darwin Núñez was the first of Jota’s teammates at Anfield to offer his condolences.

“There are no words of comfort for so much pain,” the Uruguayan wrote on Instagram alongside a picture of himself and Jota celebrating a goal together. “I will always remember you by your smile, as a good teammate on and off the pitch.”