Liverpool players and staff joined the family and friends of Diogo Jota and his brother André Silva for their funeral in the siblings’ hometown of Gondomar. People lined the streets as mourners arrived from across the globe to bid an emotional goodbye.
Jota’s widow, Rute Cardoso, who married the footballer 11 days before his death, and the brothers’ parents, Joaquim and Isabel, were comforted by family throughout.
The Liverpool head coach, Arne Slot, the captain, Virgil van Dijk, the defender Andrew Robertson, the midfielder Alexis Mac Allister and former teammates Jordan Henderson and James Milner all attended the service in Portugal. Van Dijk and Robertson carried floral tributes in the shape of red football shirts, one bearing Jota’s No 20 squad number and Silva’s No 30, as they led the Liverpool players and officials into the church.
Jota’s international colleagues Manchester City’s Rúben Dias and Bernardo Silva, and the Manchester United duo Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot, attended with the Portugal head coach, Roberto Martínez, and Nottingham Forest’s Nuno Espírito Santo, who managed Jota at Wolves. Al-Hilal’s João Cancelo and Rúben Neves joined the congregation, less than 12 hours after losing to Fluminense in the Club World Cup in America.
“They are [have been] really sad days, as you can imagine, but today we have shown we are a very large, but close family,” Martínez told Sky Sports News. “We are Portugal, and it was essential for us that [with] André Silva and Diogo Jota, we are together and we will always be together and their spirit will be with us forever. Thank you very much for your messages, for your support and everything that we have received [from] all over the world. It means a lot and today we are all one football family.”
Attendees were handed orders of service that had photographs of the brothers on the front, Jota’s taken from playing for Liverpool, celebrating a goal by making a heart shape with his hands.
There was applause from the crowds when the bell tolled as the coffins made the journey into the church. Neves, who played with Jota for Porto, Wolves and Portugal, was one of the pallbearers. Jota’s widow walked behind Jota’s coffin in tears, being held by her sister for support, a scene replicated by Silva’s wife, Maria Rodrigues, as she followed his coffin.
Silva played in the second division for Penafiel, whose squad attended the funeral. The club was well-represented at the church, too. An image of Silva held in front of his coffin carried the message “Para Sempre Um De Nos” (For ever one of us). A contingent from Gondomar’s team, which the brothers represented, arrived in the club’s yellow and blue colours.
The bishop Manuel Linda addressed a homily to Jota’s three children Dinis, Duarte and Mafalda. Van Dijk was one of many who returned outside looking visibly upset; Henderson could be seen wiping away tears. Once the service was over, the coffins were taken to a local ceremony for a private burial for close family and friends.
While the funeral procession entered the church, thousands waited behind barriers watching on through the church gates. Many were wearing Porto football shirts, a club the two brothers had both represented, and the club’s president, André Villas-Boas, was in attendance.
The funeral came after a public wake on Friday at the Capela da Ressurreição in Gondomar, attended by the Portuguese president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and the prime minister, Luís Montenegro.
Outside Gondomar’s ground, locals left scarves, shirts, flowers and mementos to remember the brothers, who began playing at the club as children; the academy is named in Jota’s honour. Silva returned to represent the team as an adult before embarking on a career in the Portuguese second division.
The collection of tributes at Anfield continued to grow on Saturday, covering a large area outside the stadium.
Jota and Silva died in the early hours of Thursday morning after their car left the road and burst into flames in Zamora, north-west Spain, while driving towards Santander to catch a ferry back to England. Jota had been advised not to fly after treatment for a collapsed lung.
