Football World Mourns as Liverpool Star Diogo Jota and Brother Laid to Rest After Fatal Crash in Spain
- Victor Nwoko
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
Family, friends, and footballers from around the globe gathered in the Portuguese town of Gondomar on Saturday to mourn Liverpool and Portugal national team forward Diogo Jota and his younger brother, André Silva, who died in a car crash in Spain earlier this week.
Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk arrived carrying a red floral tribute shaped like a football jersey with Jota’s No. 20 in white. Fellow Liverpool player Andrew Robertson followed with a similar tribute bearing the No. 30, the number worn by Silva, who played for Penafiel in Portugal’s second division. The emotional service drew dozens of football stars and hundreds of locals to pay their respects.
Portugal international Rúben Neves, a former teammate of Jota at Wolverhampton Wanderers, served as a pallbearer, just a day after competing at the Club World Cup in the United States. Neves and João Cancelo attended the funeral after playing in Orlando on Friday, visibly emotional during the minute of silence held before their match.
The funeral mass took place at Igreja Matriz church in Gondomar, where Jota had lived. Church bells rang at 10:00 a.m. local time as pallbearers carried both coffins from a nearby chapel into the packed church. The crowd included teammates, coaches, family friends, and youth players from Gondomar FC, where Jota began his football journey at just nine years old.
Portugal national team coach Roberto Martínez was in attendance, alongside Manchester City stars Bernardo Silva and Rúben Dias, and Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes. The bishop of Porto, Manuel Linda, led the funeral mass, with many mourners listening from outside via loudspeakers due to the overflowing crowd. After the mass, the coffins were carried to the adjoining cemetery for burial.
Jota, 28, and Silva, 25, died in the early hours of Thursday near Zamora in northwestern Spain. Authorities said the Lamborghini they were traveling in veered off the road on a remote stretch of highway and burst into flames. Spanish police believe a blown tire may have caused the crash, which did not involve any other vehicles. The brothers were reportedly en route to catch a ferry from northern Spain to England, where Jota was due to rejoin Liverpool after a summer break.
Their remains were identified by family members and repatriated to Portugal for a wake held on Friday.
Jota’s death came just two weeks after he married his long-time partner Rute Cardoso during a vacation following a demanding Premier League season. The couple had three children, the youngest born last year. The tragedy has prompted an outpouring of grief across the football world and tributes from Portuguese officials.
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