Family, football unite for Diogo Jota funeral

CLOSE family members and friends, as well as stars of the world of football, gathered yesterday for the funeral of Liverpool and Portugal forward Diogo Jota and his brother 48 hours after the siblings’ car crash.

Footballers Jota and André Silva were honoured by their family, friends and teammates at a joint funeral in Portugal.

Jota (28) was laid to rest alongside his brother, Silva (25) after they died in a car accident on Thursday last week at about 0030 local time in the Spanish province of Zamora.

It is understood they were on the way to take a ferry and return to Liverpool for Jota’s pre-season training when the accident happened.

The Portugal forward had undergone minor surgery and doctors had advised him against flying.

The accident came just 11 days after Jota married his long-term partner Rute Cardoso, with whom he had three children.

Their vehicle veered off a motorway and became engulfed in flames.

The funeral was held in his hometown of Gondomar, near Porto. The service was conducted by the bishop of Porto.

On Friday, hundreds had attended a wake for the brothers.

Among those who came to offer their condolences were a childhood friend, Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, Prime Minister Luis Montenegro, Jota’s agent Jorge Mendes and Porto club president Andre Villas-Boas.

“Football is truly in mourning. Diogo was an icon of the talent Portuguese football represents,” said football federation chief Pedro Proenca.

Close family members, including the parents, and friends, paid their respects at Friday’s wake first, with the grandfather propped up by two others to help him enter the chapel.

The funeral brought together huge names from across football, including Jota’s teammates, who only three months ago were celebrating their English Premier League win.

They arrived at the funeral together and watching them walk in line with each other, almost as they do when walking onto the pitch, was an emotional experience.

There was a strong feeling of community, but also a shared sombreness.

Many were visibly upset, with supporters on the other side of the barrier applauding the players. One woman in the crowd shouted towards them as they walked in: “Força! (Strength).”

Family and close friends walked into the church in complete silence, many of them with their heads bowed down as the church bell rung.

One person in the procession held up a sign with Silva’s photograph, which read: “Para sempre um de nós (Forever one of us).”

So much was the brothers’ impact on football and their local community that some of the guests had to watch the ceremony from outside the church, often hugging and comforting one another.

Locals and football fans in the crowd watched silently for most of the service, which went on for about an hour.

Many wore football shirts and carried merchandise from the different teams across Portugal and abroad where Jota and Silva, who played for local club Penafiel, spent some time in.

One of these fans was Antônio Moreira, who set off early in the morning to be one of the first outside the Igreja Matriz de Gondomar, where the funeral took place.

“I know I won’t be able to go inside, but I wanted to pay my respects,” he said from the barrier outside the church.

Avid football fans, Fábio and Rafaela, travelled from the nearby town Lordelo to honour Jota and Silva.

Wearing Jota’s shirt, Fábio said it was important to him to be here “for Jota’s final day”.

The death of the Portugal international and his brother has triggered an outpouring of emotion in football, and beyond.

Liverpool opened a book of condolences and lowered flags to half-mast, with dozens of supporters laying a sea of flowers, balloons, Jota shirts and scarves with the message “Rest in peace Diogo Jota”, outside Anfield.

At the Diogo Jota football academy, close to Gondomar SC, where the ex-Porto and Atletico Madrid player took his first steps in the game, well-wishers created a memorial with flowers, scarves, candles and shirts.

“Thank you, Diogo Jota,” read a child’s handwritten message.

Pedro Neves, who was friends with Jota at school in Gondomar, said he “will remember him as someone who was very friendly, very courteous, who loved everyone, who always had a smile on his face”.

“He left us too young; it’s not fair. But that’s how life is sometimes,” Neves, 31, told AFP. Former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, who brought Jota to the Reds in 2020, has said he was “heartbroken” while the club spoke of an “unimaginable loss”.

Klopp’s successor at Anfield, Arne Slot, said everyone associated with the club owed it to Jota to “stand together and be there for one another”.

Jota was remembered at the Club World Cup in the United States on Friday, with a one-minute silence held at the quarterfinal between Brazil’s Fluminense and Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal in Orlando.

Liverpool’s Egyptian striker Mohamed Salah said the death of his teammate had left him “frightened” to return to the club as the Premier League champions postponed the return of some players for pre-season training.

Jota had married his partner Rute Cardoso on June 22, posting a video of their wedding on Instagram just hours before the accident.

They had three children. — BBC Sport/ AFP Sport.