Diogo Jota: tributes paid after Liverpool footballer dies in car crash, aged 28
Liverpool describe ‘unimaginable loss’, Portuguese federation mourns ‘extraordinary person’ and Cristiano Ronaldo says it ‘doesn’t make sense’
The world of football reacted with shock and grief on Thursday, after Liverpool footballer Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva died in a car crash in northwest Spain.
According to police, the 28-year-old and his brother, 26, were in a Lamborghini that left the road soon after midnight, crashed and burst into flames.
Police said the incident happened “in the municipality of Cernadilla in the province of Zamora” at 12.30am local time.
Jota, who won the Nations League with Portugal last month, had married his long-term partner Rute Cardoso two weeks ago, and the couple had three children. In a post shared on their social media, the pair wrote: “Yes, forever.”
As news of the deaths broke, tributes flooded in from across the footballing world, and Cristiano Ronaldo largely summed up the feeling of disbelief with a post that simply started, “it doesn’t make sense”.
“We were just together in the national side, you had just got married,” Ronaldo wrote on his social media channels. “I am thinking of your family, your wife and your children and wishing them all the strength in the world. I know you will always be with them. Rest in peace, Diogo and Andre. We will miss you.”