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James Milner will wear the No.20 for Brighton this season in tribute to his former Liverpool teammate, Diogo Jota.
It's been nearly a month since the Liverpool forward died alongside his brother in a car crash in Spain, as the pair journeyed back to the United Kingdom ahead of the start of the Reds' pre-season training schedule.
Milner played alongside Jota at Liverpool for three seasons between 2020 and 2023, and paid tribute to the Portuguese as he explained his squad number switch.
“Once I heard Carlos [Baleba] was looking to change his number and 20 was available, I wanted to do it as a mark of respect and pay tribute to Diogo Jota,” Milner said on the Brighton's X channel.
“He was an amazing player who I was fortunate to play with and a great friend as well. It will be a great honour to wear his number in the Premier League this year.”
Speaking in July, Milner told Brighton's media team just how highly he thought of Jota, both as a player and as a person.
"The emotions you feel are pretty obvious," Milner, 39, said following Jota's passing. "The shock at first of hearing it and hoping it's not actually true. Your mind goes through your experiences together and the time you shared together.
"As a player he was incredible. A finisher - so clever with the positions he got into, how he used his body.
"I sit next to Adam Webster on the bus when we travel to [Brighton] games and the amount of times I've said to him 'you don't realise how good this guy is, this guy is amazing, I love watching him' and Adam would say 'yeah Milly you told me last week'.
"Every week I love watching the guy as a player and I loved training with him but, more importantly than as a player, as a guy he was incredible. He was someone you could put in any corner of the dressing room and people loved him.
"Me and him had so many fun days together winding each other up. He's such a stubborn guy like myself. We had so much fun together.
"He was such an amazing family man and just someone you wanted to be around. He'll be missed by everyone. He was a truly amazing player and even better guy - an unbelievable guy to be around.
"He'll be missed by everyone who knew him and everyone in the footballing world for sure."
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