{"id":38991,"date":"2025-07-04T20:47:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T20:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/38991\/"},"modified":"2025-07-04T20:47:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T20:47:11","slug":"crowds-mourn-liverpool-star-jota-in-his-portuguese-hometown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/38991\/","title":{"rendered":"Crowds mourn Liverpool star Jota in his Portuguese hometown"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Waterhouse<\/p>\n

BBC News<\/p>\n

Reporting fromGondamar, Portugal\"PAPA Media<\/p>\n

Portugese national team player Andr\u00e9 Silva was among footballers and politicians to attend the public wake in Gondomar<\/p>\n

Crowds mourned Diogo Jota in his hometown to pay their respects to the Liverpool forward and his brother Andr\u00e9 Silva, who both died in a car crash on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Portugal’s president, stars from the national team and fans from across the country gathered in the small town of Gondomar, on the outskirts of Porto, where the pair grew up.<\/p>\n

Their parents, grandfather and other family members held a private vigil at a chapel in the town before it was opened to the public for a wake. The funeral will be held on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The pair – both footballers, with Andr\u00e9 playing in Portugal’s second division – were killed after the Lamborghini they were travelling in crashed in the Spanish province of Zamora.<\/p>\n

Fans carrying Portugal flags, flowers and other memorabilia were seen weeping as they queued to pay their respects. <\/p>\n

Those in attendance included President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, Prime Minister Lu\u00eds Montenegro, national team stars Jo\u00e3o Moutinho, Diogo Dalot and Ricardo Horta, and Jota’s agent Jorge Mendes. <\/p>\n

For years as a young boy, Jota played for local club Gondomar SC, which named its academy after him in 2022.<\/p>\n

Emblazoned on its sign is a quote from Jota: “It’s not about where we come from but where we’re going to.”<\/p>\n

Outside the club, shirts and scarves were laid inside a ring of candles.<\/p>\n

\"GettyGetty Images<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old father-of-three – who this year won the Nations League with Portugal and Premier League with Liverpool – married his long-term partner Rute Cardoso just 11 days before the fatal crash.<\/p>\n

He had been travelling back to Liverpool for pre-season training, making the trip by car and ferry because he had undergone minor surgery and had been advised against flying.<\/p>\n

Liverpool said his death was a “tragedy that transcends” the club.<\/p>\n

Fans also grieved outside the club’s Anfield stadium. <\/p>\n

Former captain Jordan Henderson was seen in tears as he laid a wreath, with a card that read: “Rest in peace my friend, along with your brother Andr\u00e9. We will all miss you.”<\/p>\n

Liverpool striker Mohamed Salah admitted he was dreading returning to the club in the wake of Jota’s shock death.<\/p>\n

“I am truly lost for words. Until yesterday, I never thought there would be something that would frighten me of going back to Liverpool after the break,” Salah wrote in a post on social media.<\/p>\n

A delegation from Liverpool’s city rival club Everton – including Portugal-born strikers Beto and Youssef Chermiti – also attended and left flowers outside Anfield. <\/p>\n

Former Liverpool councillor Peter Millea – a home and away regular who had come to pay his respects – told the BBC: “There was something about him as a player when he first came to us that he became an instant hit.<\/p>\n

\"PAPA Media<\/p>\n

“He was one of those players you can easily take to, because of the manner in which he conducted himself on and off the pitch and the important goals he scored.”<\/p>\n

Mr Millea said some fans at Anfield had broken into impromptu renditions of the chant while paying their respects.<\/p>\n

“I’m sure we’ll hear it loud and clear at Wembley for the Community Shield and we’ll hear it at Preston for the first pre-season away game, you know it’ll be sung around the field against Athletic Bilbao and then during the course of the rest of the season and probably forever-more,” he said.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, fans left flowers, scarves and shirts outside Wolves’ Molineux Stadium, where Jota played prior to his move to Anfield.<\/p>\n

At Wimbledon, Portuguese tennis player Francisco Cabral wore a black ribbon to mark the passing of his countrymen.<\/p>\n

A minute’s silence was held in the Women’s Euro 2025 game between Denmark and Sweden.<\/p>\n

Liverpool has cancelled pre-season fitness tests that were due to take place today for some players as a result of yesterday’s news. A phased return of training will now begin on Monday.<\/p>\n

The funeral service will be held at the Igreja Matriz de Gondomar in Sao Cosme in Gondomar at 10:00 on Saturday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Waterhouse BBC News Reporting fromGondamar, PortugalPA Media Portugese national team player Andr\u00e9 Silva was among footballers and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":38992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[51,50,52],"class_list":{"0":"post-38991","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114796930632086174","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}