ShareGONDOMAR, Portugal: Dozens of Portuguese from the president to a childhood friend grieved for Diogo Jota in his hometown on Friday after the Liverpool star and his brother’s death in a car crash.
Jota, 28, and Andre Silva, 25, were killed on Thursday after their vehicle veered off a motorway in northwestern Spain and became engulfed in flames, just after the Portugal forward had got married.
A wake for the siblings was organised at a chapel in the Porto suburb of Gondomar on Friday before the funeral scheduled for 10:00 am (0900 GMT) on Saturday.
Close family and friends including the parents paid their respects first, with the grandfather propped up by two others to help him enter.
Mourners arrived carrying wreaths of flowers, some sobbing audibly, before the wake was opened to members of the public.
Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, Prime Minister Luis Montenegro, Jota’s agent Jorge Mendes and Porto club president Andre Villas-Boas were among the notable attendees paying condolences.
“Football is truly in mourning. Diogo was an icon of the talent Portuguese football represents,” said football federation chief Pedro Proenca.
At the Diogo Jota football academy, close to Gondomar SC where the ex-Porto and Atletico Madrid player took his first steps in the game, well-wishers created a memorial with flowers, scarves, candles and shirts.
“Thank you, Diogo Jota,” read a child’s handwritten message, while mourners stood in silent contemplation.
Francisco Goncalves, a 66-year-old judicial officer, was still coming to terms with what he called a “senseless disaster... no one understands what happened”.
‘Left us too young’
Pedro Neves, who was friends with Jota at school in Gondomar, said he “will remember him as someone who was very friendly, very courteous, who loved everyone, who always had a smile on his face”.
“He left us too young, it’s not fair. But that’s how life is sometimes,” Neves, 31, told AFP.
At Porto’s Estadio do Dragao, flags flew at half-mast and a photograph of Jota smiling and wearing the club’s shirt was projected on a big screen.
Liverpool have opened a book of condolences and lowered flags to half-mast, with dozens of supporters laying a sea of flowers, balloons and Jota shirts outside Anfield.
A similar shrine was set up at the Molineux ground of his former Premier League club Wolverhampton Wanderers.
UK media reported Liverpool had postponed the start of pre-season training, while the reigning English champions confirmed ticket sales for a July 13 friendly had been suspended.
In London, Wimbledon relaxed its strict white-only dress code to allow Portuguese tennis player Francisco Cabral to wear a black ribbon in tribute to Jota. —AFP
