Liverpool and Portugal forward Diogo Jota and his brother were killed in a car crash in northwestern Spain on Thursday, police confirmed, just weeks after the football star got married.
According to the Civil Guard, the accident occurred shortly after midnight when a vehicle veered off the motorway and caught fire in the municipality of Cernadilla, located in the province of Zamora. Authorities confirmed that the victims were 28-year-old Jota and his brother Andre.
“All indications suggest that the vehicle suffered a tyre blowout while overtaking,” the Civil Guard said in an official statement.
Pedro Proenca, president of the Portuguese Football Federation, expressed his sorrow on social media, saying he was “devastated” by the news. He described Jota as “an extraordinary person, respected by teammates and opponents alike, someone with infectious joy and a pillar of his community.”
Proenca also noted that the federation requested a minute’s silence to be observed before Portugal’s Women’s Euro 2025 match against Spain in Switzerland on Thursday.
“We have lost two champions,” he wrote. “The deaths of Diogo and Andre Silva are irreplaceable losses for Portuguese football, and we will do everything in our power to honour their memory each day.”
Jota had recently married his longtime partner Rute Cardoso on June 22. Just hours before the fatal crash, he posted a video of their wedding on Instagram. The couple shared three children.
A former player for Atletico Madrid, Porto, and Wolverhampton Wanderers, Jota scored nine goals across all competitions last season as Liverpool secured their 20th Premier League title.
