'Jota was a dream to work with and a pleasure to call friend'

Diogo Jota was "a dream to work with and a pleasure to call a friend", says Conor Coady, who was Wolves captain during the Portuguese forward's three seasons at the club.

Before joining Liverpool, Jota was part of a Wolves side that won the Championship in 2017-18 and then went on to qualify for the Europa League with a seventh-placed finished during their first season back in the Premier League.

Jota, aged 28, died in a car crash on Thursday along with his brother Andre Silva, who was 25.

Their funerals will take place at 10:00 on Saturday in their hometown of Gondomar in Portugal.

Coady, who began his career at Liverpool and currently plays for Leicester City, heard about his friend's death while at pre-season training with the Foxes.

"I think we'll all remember where we were, but it goes bigger than football, what we're all feeling now," Coady told BBC Sport.

"This has hit everybody hard. And it will hit everybody hard for a long, long time because Diogo was a fantastic human being, an amazing friend, an amazing husband, an amazing father and an absolute incredible footballer for all the clubs he has played for.

"He was an unbelievable person. This is celebrating an incredible human being. A human being who should never left us this early and this [early] into an amazing career."

Jota joined Wolves from Spanish side Atletico Madrid at the age of 20, initially on loan when they were still in the second tier of English football.

The Portuguese forward proved to be a revelation at the club, scoring 17 goals and providing six assists to help Wolves finish at the top of the table during his debut campaign.

"You could see it in his first session, that tenacity and the will to win was like no other," said 32-year-old Coady.

"He was the heart and soul of the dressing room. He had a quiet way of going about himself. But you knew you could go to him about anything. For me as a captain, it was an honour and a dream to play with him."

Before moving to England, Jota had already played under Wolves head coach Nuno Espirito Santo while on loan at Porto, and he also reunited with his former Porto and Portugal Under-21 team-mate Ruben Neves at the club.

"He was born to play in the Premier League but Wolves were in the Championship. I used to always tell young people they need to learn from players like Diogo and Ruben, who were brave enough to step into the Championship to help a club who were struggling at that time," said Coady.

"He was brave enough to bring his childhood sweetheart to Wolverhampton and really buy into the culture of England. He was such an example for everybody.

"I absolutely loved him. As a captain, he was a dream to work with. But it was a pleasure to call him a friend."

During a three-year stay at Wolves, Jota made 131 appearances for the club, scoring 44 goals, including consecutive hat-tricks in the 2019-20 Europa League victories over Besiktas and Espanyol.

In September 2020, he joined Premier League champions Liverpool in a £41m deal, with Wolves boss Nuno saying Jota is leaving "knowing that it will never be forgotten, especially by our fans, all the memorable moments that Diogo provided".

"We were gutted we were losing him because he was that good," said Coady.

"But at the same time, you gave him a big hug and you went, you know what mate, you deserve it more than anyone. Go and enjoy yourself. Go and make a name for yourself at one of the biggest clubs because you can certainly do that. And he has done for that a number of years."

Coady posted a moving tribute to his former team-mate on his social media account after hearing the news, which he said he did while he "cried my eyes out".

In the post, he describes how he felt grateful hearing his kids say "dad, you played with Jota" when the Liverpool player came up on the television screens - a feeling he reiterated again.

"People look at football and think it's all about rivalry. But watching him win the Premier League with Liverpool, it filled me with immense pride - to say I played with him and he has gone on to do incredible things," said Coady.

"He took it by storm, like he took us by storm. Like he then took the Premier league by storm. Like he then took Europa League by storm with Wolves.

"He's then gone and done it with one of the biggest clubs in the land. A remarkable footballer, but an even better team-mate, which is 10 times more important than being a remarkable footballer for me."

Coady picked Jota's hat-tricks in successive Europa Leagues games during the 2019-20 season as one of the standout moments of his Wolves career.

"It was like nothing to him. It was like it was dead easy. That's how good he was. It was like he was meant to do it," said Coady.

He also rates highly Jota's goal against Manchester United at Molineux which sent Wolves into the 2018-19 FA Cup semi-finals.

"He scored a goal against Aston Villa in the Championship that was unbelievable but his goal against United summed him up as a footballer - his pace, his power, his technique to finish it with his left foot at near post," Coady recalled.

"The infectious personality within a dressing room and how he helped me as a captain, how he helped us as a team, just being able to share a dressing room with a mate - it will live with me forever.

"The whole three years will live me forever and I'll make sure that my family and my kids will always know the stories about me being able to share the pitch with him because he was an incredible fellow."

You can listen to the full interview in Saturday's 5 Live Sport from 11:00 BST.