The memory of Diogo Jota will fly over the World Cup this summer, but It will not only be done in the concentration in Portugal. Andy Robertsonone of the Portuguese’s best friends in the Liverpool dressing room, Scotland will fulfill the dream they both shared and what they talked about in the locker room. “Today I couldn’t stop thinking about my friend Diogo Jota. We talked a lot about the World Cup. He missed it in Qatar due to an injury, I missed it because Scotland didn’t go,” he said the night his country qualified.
And before debuting in that World Cup, Robertson has received a letter from Rute Cardoso, widow of Diogo Jotain which she encourages her to enjoy that World Cup dream that her husband had for both of them.
Letter from Rute Cardoso to Diogo Jota
Andy, I write to you with a heart full of nostalgia, gratitude and, above all, pride. Diogo often spoke about you, about the friendship you forged, about the battles you fought together, about the challenges, the laughter, the conversations about football and dreams. The World Cup was one of those dreams, a dream that the two of you nurtured side by side, with the same passion with which you took to the field.
When I heard your words and knew what you felt that day when Scotland qualified for the World Cup, after so many years of waiting, I realized that Diogo never really left the field. When you reach that moment and secure your place in the World Cup, you will not go alone. You will also carry his dream with you.
And when you go out on the field, know that it won’t just be you who goes out. Diogo will be with you in your thoughts, in your steps, in your heart. So today I want to thank you.
Thanks for not forgetting it. Thanks for taking it with you. Thank you for turning the pain of loss into strength and something so beautiful.
That’s how we do it here at home too, every day. He would be and is incredibly proud of you. Cherish that dream, Andy.
Love him for you and for him. With love, gratitude and all my support.
“The goal of both of them was to reach the United States”
“It was at the 2022 World Cup when we really became friends. He missed it due to injury and Scotland did not qualify. We talked a lot about what it would mean for both of us to be in the next World Cup.. And that was their goal: to reach the United States. And yes, obviously I’m devastated because, you know, they took that away from him,” Robertson says in the video after reading Cardoso’s letter.
And the Scotsman, very excited, He promises his friend’s widow that he will be with him when he hits the grass: “Obviously I will carry him in my heart and I know that he will be with me in the first game, in the second, in the third and hopefully beyond that. And yes, he is always there. He is always the one we think about.”
