{"id":42361,"date":"2025-07-06T03:19:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-06T03:19:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/42361\/"},"modified":"2025-07-06T03:19:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-06T03:19:15","slug":"diogo-jota-and-brothers-funeral-attended-by-liverpool-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/42361\/","title":{"rendered":"Diogo Jota and brother’s funeral attended by Liverpool players"},"content":{"rendered":"

GONDOMAR, Portugal (AP) \u2014 Players from Liverpool and Portugal\u2019s national team joined family and friends for the funeral of their teammate Diogo Jota<\/a> and his brother on Saturday, two days after the siblings died in a car crash in Spain.<\/p>\n

Liverpool captain Virgil Van Dijk arrived carrying a red floral arrangement in the shape of a soccer shirt with Jota\u2019s No. 20 in white. Liverpool teammate Andrew Robertson carried a similar arrangement with the No. 30, the number worn by Jota\u2019s brother, Andr\u00e9 Silva, who played for Portuguese club Penafiel. Coach Arne Slot was part of the Liverpool contingent.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Assistants<\/p>\n

Assistants crowd outside the church during the funeral of Diogo Jota and his brother Andr\u00e9 Silva, in Gondomar, near Porto, Portugal, on Saturday, July 5, 2025. (AP Photo\/Manu Fernandez)<\/p>\n

Assistants crowd outside the church during the funeral of Diogo Jota and his brother Andr\u00e9 Silva, in Gondomar, near Porto, Portugal, on Saturday, July 5, 2025. (AP Photo\/Manu Fernandez)<\/p>\n

Read More<\/p>\n

Portugal international R\u00faben Neves served as a pallbearer for Jota a day after playing for at the Club World Cup in the United States. He and Jota were teammates at Wolverhampton earlier in their careers.<\/p>\n

Neves and Jo\u00e3o Cancelo attended the funeral after playing in Orlando on Friday, when their Al Hilal was eliminated by Fluminense. Both players had wept when a minute of silence was held before the quarterfinal match.<\/p>\n

The service was held at Igreja Matriz church in the Portuguese town of Gondomar, where Jota had a home.<\/p>\n

Church bells pealed at 10:00 a.m. local time as the funeral started. Pallbearers carried the caskets of both brothers from a chapel next door and into the church. Relatives and hundreds of friends and acquaintances, including players of the local Gondomar FC where Jota started playing at age 9, then followed.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Diogo<\/p>\n

Diogo Jota\u2019s wife Rute Cardoso reacts next to the coffin of his husband, during his funeral in Gondomar, near Porto, Portugal, on Saturday, July 5, 2025. (AP Photo\/Manu Fernandez)<\/p>\n

Diogo Jota\u2019s wife Rute Cardoso reacts next to the coffin of his husband, during his funeral in Gondomar, near Porto, Portugal, on Saturday, July 5, 2025. (AP Photo\/Manu Fernandez)<\/p>\n

Read More<\/p>\n

Portugal\u2019s national team coach Roberto Mart\u00ednez and several other top Portuguese players also attended, including Manchester City duo Bernardo Silva and R\u00faben Dias and Manchester United\u2019s Bruno Fern\u00e1ndes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are really, really sad days, as you can imagine,\u201d Mart\u00ednez said. \u201cBut today we showed we are a large, close family. … Their spirit will be with us forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bishop of Porto, Manuel Linda, led the funeral mass. The church was filled to capacity and a couple of dozen people followed the service via loudspeaker from outside. Afterwards, the coffins were carried to the cemetery next to the church.<\/p>\n

Jota, 28, and the 25-year-old Silva were found dead<\/a> near Zamora in northwestern Spain early Thursday after the Lamborghini they were driving crashed on an isolated stretch of highway just after midnight and burst into flames.<\/p>\n

Brothers killed in car crash<\/p>\n

The brothers were reportedly heading to catch a boat from northern Spain to go to England where Jota was to rejoin with Liverpool after a summer break.<\/p>\n

Spanish police are investigating the cause of the crash, which did not involve another vehicle, they said. They said they believe it could have been caused by a blown tire.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Liverpool's<\/p>\n

Liverpool\u2019s Diogo Jota in Liverpool, Aug. 21, 2021. (Mike Egerton\/PA via AP, File)<\/p>\n

Liverpool\u2019s Diogo Jota in Liverpool, Aug. 21, 2021. (Mike Egerton\/PA via AP, File)<\/p>\n

Read More<\/p>\n

Their bodies were repatriated to Portugal after being identified by the family. A wake was held<\/a> for them on Friday.<\/p>\n

Jota\u2019s death occurred two weeks after he married long-time partner Rute Cardoso while on vacation from a long season where he helped Liverpool win the Premier League. The couple had three children, the youngest born last year.<\/p>\n

Their loss led to an outpouring of condolences<\/a> from the soccer world and Portuguese officials.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Wilson reported from Barcelona, Spain.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP soccer: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/soccer<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GONDOMAR, Portugal (AP) \u2014 Players from Liverpool and Portugal\u2019s national team joined family and friends for the funeral…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":42362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2696,29223,33308,4426,33307,33309,29222,14414,33310,33312,1836,17489,33311,50,124,221,62,2369,103],"class_list":{"0":"post-42361","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-accidents","9":"tag-andr-silva","10":"tag-andrew-robertson","11":"tag-arne-slot","12":"tag-bernardo-silva","13":"tag-bruno-fernndes","14":"tag-diogo-jota","15":"tag-funerals-and-memorial-services","16":"tag-joo-cancelo","17":"tag-jota-peleteiro","18":"tag-liverpool-fc","19":"tag-manchester-city-fc","20":"tag-manuel-linda","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-portugal","23":"tag-soccer","24":"tag-sports","25":"tag-virgil-van-dijk","26":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114804134123470569","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42361","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=42361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}