Rúben Neves and João Cancelo flew to Portugal following Al Hilal’s 2-1 defeat to Fluminense in the Club World Cup quarterfinals for the funeral of former teammate Diogo Jota. Neves served as a pallbearer for his close friend who died in a car crash with his brother André Silva in Spain on Thursday.
Jota was 28 years old, Silva was 26.
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Prior to the match with Fluminense, Neves posted a tribute to Jota on social media.
“Wherever you are, I know you’re going to read this, we’ve never been one for this sort of thing and maybe now I’ll regret it a little,” Neves wrote on an Instagram post. “But you know what you mean to me just as much as I know what I am to you.”
“When I go to the national team, you’ll still be by my side at the dinner table, on the bus, on the plane… you’ll always be there with me, as usual,” he continued. “We’ll keep laughing, making plans, sharing our lives with each other. I’ll make sure you’re always there and I’ll make sure your family never lacks anything while you’re there, far away but thinking of us, waiting for us…”
During a moment of silence before the Club World Cup match began, Neves and Cancelo broke down with emotion for their former teammate.
Players and staff from Liverpool, for whom Jota played in the Premier League, also traveled to Portugal for the funeral. Among those in attendance were captain Virgil van Dijk and manager Arne Slot.
Jota originally joined Liverpool in 2020, scoring 47 goals with 15 assists in his 79 starts with the team, which won the Premier League title for the 2024-25 season.
Virgil van Dijk and Andrew Robertson of Liverpool FC, carry floral tributes for Diogo Jota and Andre Silva at their funeral in Gondomar, Portugal. (Photo by Octavio Passos/Getty Images)
(Octavio Passos via Getty Images)
Jota’s death inspired tributes throughout the world on Friday. During Chelsea’s Club World Cup match with Palmeiras, Jota’s Portugal teammate Pedro Neto brought a jersey with the names Diogo and André onto the pitch.
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Portuguese tennis players Nuno Borges and Francisco Cabral wore black ribbons during their matches at Wimbledon on Friday, as the All-England Club relaxed its all-white dress code to allow the players to pay tribute.
At the first show of their reunion tour in Cardiff, Wales, the rock band Oasis had an image of Jota in his Liverpool jersey projected behind the stage.
The cause of the crash that killed Jota and Silva is still ongoing. Police do not know who was driving the car and whether or not a blown tire caused the crash. The vehicle, a Lamborghini, was in flames when firefighters arrived on the scene.
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The Spanish Civil Guard later confirmed to the Associated Press that Jota and Silva were killed in the crash, and their bodies were returned to Portugal for the funeral.
