Death of Diogo Jota: Shockwave of grief as football left devastated by loss of newly married Liverpool star and brother

Irish Independent

8 hours ago

In the space of two months after his last goal, the mercurial, beloved Portuguese football player went on to win the Premier League and Uefa Nations League and marry his long-time girlfriend, Rute Cardoso, the mother of his three children, in his home city of Porto.
'Yes to Forever,' he wrote on Insta­gram just 11 days ago, underneath a stream of pictures from the ceremony. It was, it appeared, the best summer of the 28-year-old's life.
But at 12.30am local time yesterday morning, that life was cut devastatingly short in a car crash on the motorway in Zamora, a province in north-western Spain.
As a result of the accident, the car caught fire and both occupants died
In images captured by Spanish media, a blackened twist of shredded metal is all that remains of the Lamborghini in which he was driving with his brother, Andre, also a footballer, with the Portuguese second division side Penafiel.
In a statement, the Spanish guardia civil outlined the apparent cause of the crash on the A52, which links northern Portugal to Spain.
'The investigation points to a road accident due to a burst tyre while overtaking. As a result of the accident, the car caught fire and both occupants died,' it said.
Officials in high-visibility jackets knelt by the scene of the crash, taking photos of the unrecognisable vehicle and shards of a grey metal barrier smashed through by the force of the accident.
Jota was due to report back to Liverpool on Monday for the start of pre-season training. Reports emerged yesterday that he was travelling back to England by car as he had recently had lung surgery and was told by doctors not to fly.
As the news spread, a shockwave of grief engulfed the sporting world, with fans leaving wreaths up against the brick walls of Anfield, the stadium he had sent into raptures since joining the club in 2020.
At the time, his £45m transfer from Wolves appeared something of a gamble for Jurgen Klopp's side, which had just won the Premier League for the first time in 20 years.
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But then the mazy dribbles began, the ball pinging between Jota, Sadio Mane and Mohammed Salah, and the goals started to bang into the net, 85 of them in total in 165 appearances.
'It doesn't make sense,' Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese captain, wrote in a tribute on social media.
'We were just together in the national team.'
Having overcome injuries, it was hoped he would return to his best form this season
In the 49th and final appearance Jota made, he was sent on at the interval in extra-time during Portugal's penalty shootout victory over Spain.
It was the second trophy he lifted with his country, and added to the Prem­ier League, FA Cup, League Cup and Championship trophies he already had at home.
This season, it was hoped he would return to his best form, having overcome a series of rib, hip and muscle injuries that saw his game time carefully managed.
In the stands, he would have been watched by Ms Cardoso, and perhaps some of the high-school sweethearts' three young children, Denis, Duarte and a daughter born last November.
In 2022, Ms Cardoso released a proposal video of Jota bending down on one knee under a pine-wreathed canopy in the garden of a holiday villa.
When the couple moved to the English Midlands in 2017, with Jota joining Wolves from Atletico Madrid, she revealed that they had settled in for long binges of Peaky Blinders, the TV crime series set in the region.
A player who sometimes looked like he was being controlled by a Play­Station, Jota revealed in 2021 that he was equally adept at online sports as the real thing, reaching the number one position worldwide in Fifa's Ultimate Team Championship Leaderboard during an injury lay-off.
Appearing in a podcast with Liverpool's performance psychologist Lee Richardson last year, he said he tried not to bring the 'stresses' of his career into his family home.
'You want to be the best father you can be,' he said. 'You try to lead by example… even though sometimes you want to get a bit more rest in the afternoon.'
He continued: 'I had this yesterday after the game. I wanted to get a bit of rest. One of my kids wanted to play some football and you need to be on it.'
Jota's body was brought, along with his brother's, to the Zamora Forensic Medicine Institute, where the post-mortem examinations were to take place.
Less than two weeks after they were married, posing in front of the gold-and-white altar in a Porto church, Ms Cardoso will have to prepare to attend the funeral of the man she had loved all her life.