Jota’s Death Made Me Lose Interest In Everything – Konate

Liverpool defender Ibrahima Konate has opened up on how the deaths of team-mate Diogo Jota and his father left him battling depression. He recently opened up about the personal turmoil he was going through during his final season at the club.

Admitting that the shocking losses made him lose interest in everything else, Konate disclosed he only had to return to playing football because he had no choice.

The French international added that even though the doctor said his father didn’t have long to live, he didn’t expect him to lose him so quickly.

His words, “There are low points, there’s depression. You can suffer from depression in football too; there’s no need to be ashamed to say so.

It’s true that I’ve often heard players say they were suffering from depression and that fans or people on the outside didn’t understand because they were earning a lot of money. But no, that’s rubbish and you shouldn’t say that.

Depression is personal; it’s deep inside you. When you’re depressed, it starts in the heart, goes up to the brain and takes over your whole body. For me, that’s what’s hard, and we need to talk about it.

Jota’s death devastated me. I didn’t have any interest in anything else at that point.

You go back to football because you have no choice. We’re employees at a club that pays us every month, so we have duties.

We had no choice but to go back on the field and play for him and his family – as well as ourselves. There’s no way of getting over it, but you learn to live with it.”

On his dad, “I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know whether I should go home and stop playing, because the team needed me too.

I didn’t know who to talk to about it, so I kept it all to myself. And this is the advice I’d give to everyone: when you’re feeling down or something’s going on, you need to talk to those around you.

It can help you and do you good. I didn’t talk about it and kept it to myself.

The doctors then told us he didn’t have long to live, but we didn’t know it would happen so quickly.”

WOW.

Liverpool Football Club is a professional football club based in Liverpool, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Founded in 1892, the club joined the Football League the following year and has played its home games at Anfield since its formation.

Domestically, the club has won 19 league titles, eight FA Cups, a record nine League Cups and 16 FA Community Shields. In international competitions, the club has won six European Cups, three UEFA Cups, four UEFA Super Cups—all English records—and one FIFA Club World Cup.

The club established itself as a major force in domestic and European football in the 1970s and 1980s, when Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan and Kenny Dalglish, led the club to a combined 11 League titles and four European Cups. Liverpool won two further European Cups in 2005 and 2019 under the management of Rafael Benítez and Jürgen Klopp, respectively; the latter led Liverpool to a 19th league title in 2020, the club’s first during the Premier League era.

Anfield was built in 1884 on land adjacent to Stanley Park. Situated 2 miles (3 km) from Liverpool city centre, it was originally used by Everton before the club moved to Goodison Park after a dispute over rent with Anfield owner John Houlding. Left with an empty ground, Houlding founded Liverpool in 1892 and the club has played at Anfield ever since. The capacity of the stadium at the time was 20,000, although only 100 spectators attended Liverpool’s first match at Anfield.