{"id":489681,"date":"2026-06-08T22:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T22:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/489681\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T22:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T22:42:08","slug":"diogo-will-be-with-you-andy-robertson-shares-emotional-letter-from-jotas-widow-world-cup-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/489681\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Diogo will be with you\u2019: Andy Robertson shares emotional letter from Jota\u2019s widow | World Cup 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andy Robertson has shared an emotional letter from Diogo Jota\u2019s widow as he prepares to lead Scotland at their World Cup return. Robertson and Jota were teammates and close friends at Liverpool<\/a> before the Portuguese was killed in a car accident, aged just 28, last July.<\/p>\n

When Scotland<\/a> qualified for the World Cup for the first time in almost 30 years, Robertson revealed Jota had featured strongly in his thoughts. The pair had spoken regularly about shared World Cup aspirations. Now, as part of a feature on Fifa\u2019s social media channels, Robertson has read out a letter from Jota\u2019s widow, Rute Cardoso.<\/p>\n

\u201cAndy I\u2019m writing to you with a heart full of longing, gratitude and above all pride,\u201d read the letter. \u201cDiogo often spoke of you, of the friendship you built, the battles you fought together, the challenges, the laughter, the conversations about football and about dreams.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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 pitch. When I heard your words and learnt what you felt on that day when Scotland qualified for the World Cup<\/a> after so many years of waiting, I realised that Diogo never truly left the pitch.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy achieving that moment and securing your place at the World Cup, you won\u2019t be going alone; you\u2019ll be taking his dream with you too. And when you step onto the pitch, I know it won\u2019t be just you walking out. Diogo will be with you in your thoughts, in your steps, in your heart.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, today I want to thank you. Thank you for not forgetting him. Thank you for taking him with you. Thank you for turning the pain of loss into strength and into something so beautiful. That\u2019s how we do it here at home too, every day. He would be and is incredibly proud of you.<\/p>\n

Diogo Jota celebrates with Andy Robertson after scoring against Tottenham in December 2021. Photograph: Kieran McManus\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

\u201cCherish that dream, Andy. Live it for yourself and for him. With love, gratitude and all my support, Rute Cardoso.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robertson, who attended the wedding of Jota and Cardosa, was visibly moved by the sentiment offered towards him. Robertson, who will join Tottenham this summer<\/a>, said: \u201cIt\u2019s obviously amazing of Rute to even take the time, with what she\u2019s going through, to write me a letter but it just sums up the person that she is. Thankfully, I got to know her and the amazing times that they had.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously I\u2019ve seen how heartbroken we all were, but in particular her, when obviously Jots left us. Just, thank you. That letter will stay with me for a very long time. And we\u2019ve just got to carry him with us. We will always make sure that his name will never be forgotten, that his memories will always be cherished like Rute says in there, the dreams that we\u2019d shared of trying to be at the World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andy Robertson has shared an emotional letter from Diogo Jota\u2019s widow as he prepares to lead Scotland at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-489681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}