Prime Minister Luís Montenegro joined members of Diogo Jota’s family to a private wake on Friday (4) in Gondomar, hometown of Liverpool player in northern Portugal, after his death alongside his brother André Silva in a car accident in Spain.
Jota’s longtime agent Jorge Mendes was also seen joining the family, which included his wife Rute Cardoso, who had married the athlete just two weeks earlier. Montenegro spent almost half an hour with his family before leaving without making statements.
A train of funeral cars transporting the bodies left for Gondomar near Porto, on Thursday night, from the Menabla de Sanabria, near the place where the Lamborghini where the brothers traveled came out of the road and caught fire after midnight on Thursday. Police said it suspected a tire had burst.
It is expected that a public wake will take place at a chapel in Gondomar from 4 pm local time (8 pm GMT) and a funeral on Saturday at a church near local time (14h of Brasilia), the mayor of Gondomar’s office said.
The death of striker Jota at the age of 28 shook the football world, with tribute messages coming from former teammates, clubs, politicians and fans.
Outside Liverpool’s Anfield Stadium, fans left flowers, scarves and handwritten tickets, many of children.
“I never thought something would scare me to go back to Liverpool after the (summer) holidays,” said Mohamed Salah, Liverpool teammate on Instagram.
“Team companions come and go, but not so. It will be extremely difficult to accept that Diogo will not be there when we return,” he added.
Football clubs, including PSG (Paris Saint Germain), which has several Portugal players in its cast, Bayern Munich, Chelsea and Real Madrid, observed a moment of silence during training for their clubs at the United States Club World Cup.
Chelsea coach Enzo Maresca said on Thursday that striker Pedro Neto was evaluating if he would play in the quarterfinals on Friday against Palmeiras, while the Portuguese regrets the tragic death of his close friend.
Jota coach at Liverpool, Arne Slot, said in a statement that his thoughts were with Jota’s relatives.
“My message to them is very clear,” you will never walk alone, “Slot said, using the words of the team anthem.
“For us, as a club, the feeling of shock is absolute. Diogo was not just our player. He was a loved one to all of us. He was a teammate, a colleague, a co -worker and, in all these functions, he was very special,” added the Dutch.
In Gondomar, a city with about 160,000 inhabitants in the Porto Metropolitan Region, known for their artisanal and filigree handicrafts, residents struggled to deal with the sudden death of a local hero.
At the Diogo Jota Academy in Gondomar – healer is “is not important where we came from, but where we go” – people put candles, flowers, scarves and shirts from the various clubs he played and the Portuguese team in honor of the player.
Jota opened the gym in 2022 for children from 6 to 9 years old at Gondomar Sport Club, where he himself played for 10 years as a child.
It was at Gondomar Secondary School that he met his wife. They started dating at age 15 when they were in the same class, and she became a pillar in her life.
When they were 19, they moved together to Madrid, when Jota was transferred from the small Portuguese club Paços de Ferreira to Atletico Madrid.
“Besides being your girlfriend and best friend, I’m your number one fan,” Cardoso told the newspaper “The Ball” at the time.
Jota was returning to Liverpool by car after being informed that he should avoid air travel for up to six weeks after pulmonary surgery to treat a fractured rib, his physiotherapist Miguel Gonçalves told the Now.
Gonçalves said Jota was recovering well from pneumothorax surgery and had planned to take a ferry to the United Kingdom from Spain.
