{"id":461721,"date":"2026-03-07T01:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T01:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/461721\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T01:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T01:16:09","slug":"wolves-commemorate-diogo-jota-with-paintings-at-molineux-before-liverpool-fa-cup-tie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/461721\/","title":{"rendered":"Wolves commemorate Diogo Jota with paintings at Molineux before Liverpool FA Cup tie"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Wolverhampton Wanderers have unveiled a pair of paintings by former player Jody Craddock in memory of the club\u2019s former forward Diogo Jota.<\/p>\n<p>Craddock, who played more than 200 times for Wolves and is a respected artist, used ink made from the floral tributes laid at Molineux following Jota\u2019s death in a car crash last July. The Portuguese forward, who made 131 appearances for Wolves and 182 for Liverpool, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6468468\/2025\/07\/04\/liverpool-diogo-jota-crash\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">died at the age of 28 alongside his brother Andre Silva in the crash in Spain<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Craddock produced two paintings which were unveiled at Molineux on Friday, ahead of the FA Cup fifth-round meeting between Jota\u2019s two English clubs at the stadium later that day.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Remembering Diogo \ud83d\udc9b<\/p>\n<p>A memorial artwork created by Jody Craddock, painted with ink made out of the petals from floral tributes left by fans in memory of Diogo Jota, has been unveiled at Molineux. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/aStwzk8pGt\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/aStwzk8pGt<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Wolves (@Wolves) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Wolves\/status\/2029991383616905335?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">March 6, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Hundreds of floral tributes were laid by fans at the foot of the Billy Wright statue following the tragedy, and the petals from the flowers were later turned into ink.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a memorial for everybody within the club and importantly involves our fans who felt so upset by Diogo\u2019s passing,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wolves.co.uk\/news\/club\/20260306-jota-paintings-provide-permanent-tribute-at-molineux\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">said Wolves director John Gough<\/a> at the unveiling of the paintings. \u201cJody\u2019s done a fantastic job of encapsulating Diogo very well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe opportunity of getting everybody \u2013 all departments \u2013 together to remember one of our outstanding players, and the contribution he made to this football club, was a nice moment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy transforming the tributes left by supporters into the ink used to create this artwork, these messages of love and remembrance have become part of the memorial itself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The paintings will be displayed in the Stan Cullis Stand reception at Molineux and reproduced in weatherproof material to be installed outside the stadium.<\/p>\n<p>The unveiling was attended by Wolves head coach Rob Edwards, a number of players including Jota\u2019s international team-mates Jose Sa and Toti, and first-team coach Rui Silva, who coached Jota during his three seasons at Wolves.<\/p>\n<p>Craddock said: \u201cIt brought immense pride, with who it is and what it represents. The club turning flowers to paint was a fantastic idea, and for them to ask me was very nice because it meant they trusted me to do a good enough job to produce pieces to hang up there forever.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m really pleased with them. The balance of the two together is perfect. It was nice to get them framed and see them in the place they\u2019re meant to be.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Friday will be the third time Liverpool and Wolves have faced each other since Jota\u2019s passing.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wolverhampton Wanderers have unveiled a pair of paintings by former player Jody Craddock in memory of the club\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[2948,218,708,221,101,56,54,55,22397],"class_list":["post-461721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-fa-cup","tag-football","tag-liverpool","tag-premier-league","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wolverhampton-wanderers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}