The final photo of Diogo Jota before his heartbreaking death at the age of 28 has been shared, according to a report.
The football world has been launched into mourning after the Liverpool star died on Thursday, alongside his brother when his Lamborghini had a tyre blow out while overtaking another vehicle on the A-52 at Cernadilla near Zamora – just ten miles over the border from Portugal.
The car is said to have rolled and burst into flames, with emergency services unable to save the footballing duo. Jota’s brother, Andre Silva, 26, played for Portuguese second division side Penafiel.
Jota and Silva were headed to Santander to catch a ferry to Britain after Diogo was advised not to fly following lung surgery, it was reported in his home country. Liverpool are due to start pre-season training on Tuesday, so Jota was heading back to the UK on a road trip with his brother less than two weeks after he married his childhood sweetheart Rute in his home city of Porto on June 22.
Doctors reportedly advised the Liverpool star not to catch a plane after a recent operation, so he was getting a boat instead. A Brittany Ferries service from Santander to Plymouth left at 4pm BST on Thursday, arriving in Devon at 11.15am on Friday.
According to Record, Jota and new wife Rute attended a friend’s wedding over the weekend and had been celebrating together before the star made his way back to Liverpool to kick off the new season.
Jota was seen donning a blue suit, with black shoes, a white shirt and a shite tie. He was also wearing dark sunglasses with a beaming smile across his face.
There are nine people in total in the picture. One of them is Jota, and another is Rute, who Jota married late last month. The 28-year-old mother of his three children and partner since the age of 16. He had described himself as the luckiest man in the world to be her husband, sharing moving footage of their wedding day in his final Instagram post on Wednesday afternoon.
The couple married on June 22 in Porto, the footballer’s home city. Rute shared more wedding day pictures in a social media post yesterday and said: ‘My dream come true.’ Jota replied in the comments: ‘I’m the lucky one.’
In the image, Rute is seen wearing heels and a lilac floral dress, as well as a pink clutch bag and sunglasses.
It is reported that the duo attended a wedding over the weekend, and that Jota had lunch with his wife and children in Leca da Palmeira on Wednesday.
The Lamborghini crash happened on the A-52 in the province of Zamora. The Spanish dual carriageway is a key route taken by drivers after leaving northern Portugal as they head for the ports of Santander and Bilbao or drive north-east towards France.
Emergency services in the Castilla and Leon region confirmed the crash and two fatalities at around 12.35am on Thursday. Diogo and Andre’s deaths were then confirmed by the Portuguese Football Federation at around 8am.
Wreckage at the scene suggested the brothers were driving to the UK in a Lamborghini Huracan Evo Spyder.
It costs in the region of £180,000 before upgrades and has a top speed of in excess of 200mph. It can go from 0-60mph in 3.1 seconds.
It was not immediately clear who was driving but police have been looking into the possibility that the accident happened as a result of a blown tyre while the car tried to overtake another vehicle.
Cristiano Ronaldo, Jota’s friend and teammate and Portugal’s greatest player, said today: ‘It doesn’t make any sense. Just now we were together for the national team, you were just married. To your family, to your wife and children, I send my condolences and wish them all the strength in the world. I know you will always be with them. RIP. Diogo and Andre. We will all miss you’.
Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz are among the current Liverpool players to have paid tribute – as well as former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp.
Diogo was born Diogo Silva, but changed his surname to Jota to stand out because it is a common surname. His brother Andre kept the family name.
The boys were the only children of parents Joaquim and Isabel Silva.
Jota was part of Liverpool’s Premier League-winning side in the 2024/25 campaign, scoring six goals in 26 appearances. He also played for Portugal’s national team and helped it win the Nations League last month in an extraordinary win over rivals Spain on penalties.
