Liverpool star Diogo Jota, 28, dies in car crash in Spain — days after his wedding
The regional fire department of Castile and Leon, where Zamora is located, said on its website that a car crashed early on Thursday, shortly after midnight, and burst into flames, with two men, aged 28 and 26, found dead.
'We have lost two champions. Their deaths represent irreparable losses for Portuguese football, and we will do everything we can to honour their legacy every day,' the Portuguese Football Federation said in a statement.
3 Liverpool's Portuguese forward Diogo Jota, 28, died in a car crash near Zamora in northwestern Spain with his brother, the Portuguese Football Federation said on Thursday.
REUTERS
Spanish police told Reuters they could not yet officially confirm the names of the deceased, but everything pointed to it being Jota and his brother.
The Lamborghini they were traveling in veered off the road, the spokesperson said.
The bodies have been taken to a forensics unit in nearby Zamora, where autopsies will be performed, they said.
Jota, who got married on June 28, helped Liverpool win the Premier League last season and also won the FA Cup and League Cup with the Merseyside outfit.
Jota arrived at Anfield from Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2020 and scored 65 goals in 182 appearances for the club in all competitions.
3 Portugal's Diogo Jota celebrates with the trophy after winning the Nations League on June 9, 2025.
REUTERS
3 Diogo Joto with his wife, Rute Cardoso, and their children.
@rutecfcardoso14/Instagram
He also made 49 appearances for Portugal, twice winning the UEFA Nations League.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
25 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Draper learns lessons the hard way after Wimbledon exit
Britain's Jack Draper reacts during his second round match against Croatia's Marin Cilic, a four set defeat for the British number one and world number four (Reuters via Beat Media Group subscription) By James Toney at Wimbledon Jack Draper is meant to be the next big thing in British tennis, so surely a comeback in a five-set thriller was just a rite of passage. However, it seems the world number four has plenty more to learn at Wimbledon, as he was outgunned by former finalist Marin Cilic, a man whose name should always be prefaced by 'big-serving'. Advertisement Cilic fired down 16 aces and didn't ease up on his second serves either, Draper becoming the latest top seed to exit Wimbledon. He briefly threatened one of the classic teatime comebacks but went down 6-4, 6-3, 1-6, 6-4. This might be Draper's home Slam, but his Wimbledon record stands out among the majors – just two wins here in three attempts – while he reached the US Open semi-finals last year and the last 16 in both Melbourne and Roland Garros. But it wasn't the weight of expectation that cost him, just the bludgeoning play of Cilic, who on this sort of form can take the racquet out of your hand. 'I'm frustrated and upset, that's the toughest loss I've had, but Marin played an incredible match from start to finish. It just hurts,' said Draper. Advertisement 'I've actually been really disappointed with how I've been playing on grass. I don't see the holes in my game on hard courts or clay, but these last few weeks have highlighted some weaknesses. 'I'm very determined to make this a surface that is great for me, but the hole in my forehand showed up – I couldn't deal with his pace. My movement wasn't good enough either. The top guys are so secure in their games and that's where I need to be. 'Even though my last 12 months have been great, there are lots of things to improve. It's exciting and frustrating, because I thought I was ahead of where I was. 'It's not the pressure – I just didn't play well enough. I couldn't find the level I wanted. You can't forget he's a great player, he's won a Grand Slam.' Advertisement Cilic is a Grand Slam champion and Olympic silver medallist, but this was only his second win over a top-five player in 20 matches. One day unstoppable, the next unpredictable, this was also his first appearance at the All England Club in four years, with injury after injury keeping him sidelined. 'My emotions are incredible – it's been a long journey and to come back from where I was three years ago, I can't even describe,' he said. 'To play at this level, in front of this crowd, against a player like Jack, is just incredible. I feel great and I hope I can continue to play well.' Draper was one of four British men to exit on Thursday, leaving Cameron Norrie, Emma Raducanu and Sonay Kartal flying the flag for the home team. Advertisement Dan Evans was ruthlessly swatted aside by Novak Djokovic, while Jack Pinnington Jones and Arthur Fery lost in straight sets to Italians Flavio Cobolli and Luciano Darderi. Evans insists he is in no rush to call time on his career after a Wimbledon exit. The British number five, currently ranked 154 in the world, will now reset his sights on qualifying for the US Open, where he has reached the third round for the past three years. 'I don't know what the future holds – we'll see what the year brings,' he said. 'I'll sit back and take stock, but I'll decide at the end of the year what I want to do. It's not getting easier waking up the morning after matches – it's just not as easy as it used to be. Advertisement 'I feel I've got a good shot when I play the tier below the very top guys. I still think I've got my tennis in me.' 'I always appreciate the chance to play on that very special court. I might never get another opportunity, but when you're 35 you have more perspective – you understand the occasion more. 'I wanted to win, I felt I could win, but Novak is such a hard task. I felt like I was always on the back foot – he's just so good. Every serve hit the spot he wanted, and his return game just puts you under so much pressure.' Pinnington Jones will edge a little closer to the world's top 200 after his first Grand Slam win but insisted he had no complaints about a few days work that has doubled his career earnings. Advertisement "To play my first Wimbledon main draw here, get a win as well, if you had told me at the start of the week that would have happened, I would have signed," he said. "I'm very proud of myself in sort of how I've handled the whole experience. I think it's invaluable for me to play such a good player and just sort of see the clear things in my game that I need to work on if I want any chance of getting up in my ranking up and being able to come back here, not as a wild card and actually earn my place here." For the latest action on the British summer grass court season, check out the LTA website.
New York Times
26 minutes ago
- New York Times
Diogo Jota's death leaves Liverpool locked in numb disbelief
Only five weeks ago, Diogo Jota celebrated becoming a Premier League winner for the first time by skipping towards the Kop grandstand, twirling a red and white scarf triumphantly around his head. Yesterday, just a few yards away, nestled in a shrine marking the sudden, brutal, end of his life, was his No 20 shirt with the message scrawled, 'Forever a champion.' Almost as soon as the news broke of his death, the residents of Anfield began laying flowers outside the famous stadium. These were not even match-goers in many cases — just those who wanted to demonstrate their respect to a player who Liverpudlians could identify with. A lot of the descriptions were similar. Jota was a diminutive, edgy footballer who, on the pitch, always seemed to be ready for the fight. His last goal for the club was the winner in a Merseyside derby and though the relief inside Anfield that night was enormous, it wasn't a surprise that he proved to be the saviour. Advertisement One-on-one, Jota reminded you of Robbie Fowler. Getting there, he would force his way through small gaps like Luis Suarez. He was cunning and crafty. He never quite became a central figure in the Liverpool team due to injuries but when he was available, his perseverance and inventiveness meant you could rely on him to pop up, breathing life into the performances of others — as he did against Everton. His death is hard to process. By midday, amid the shirts from Manchester United, Leeds United, Rangers and Jota's former club, Wolverhampton Wanderers, there were so many bouquets outside Anfield that it was pointless counting them. As soon as you had a number, it increased. There was warmth in the air and barely a cloud in the sky — a perfect summer's afternoon — but everyone seemed numb, largely struggling to express their feelings when asked about the fact he is no longer here. The same theme kept coming up. Each time Jota represented Liverpool at this venue, he would walk off the pitch and wave to his family. Talking about him as a footballer felt inappropriate. People were thinking mainly about wife, Rute, and their three kids. Jota married his childhood sweetheart only a fortnight ago in Portugal, when Andy Robertson was one of the guests and he observed his friend 'bursting with love for his wife and family'. While it was acknowledged that this is a dreadful loss for Liverpool, her pain is unimaginable. Tragedy is not a strong enough word. What has happened to her is catastrophic. Jota's last public appearance in Liverpool was on the day the squad paraded the Premier League trophy around the city. The beery bus carrying Jota and his team-mates had just passed Water Street when a car rammed into supporters, injuring more than 100. Now this. It was meant to be a summer of celebration, especially after Liverpool's last league title in 2020 came amid a pandemic and unprecedented restrictions. Instead, it will be remembered as a period of grief and shock. Advertisement Since joining Liverpool a few months after that title win, Jota had lived in Blundellsands near Crosby beach, largely keeping himself to himself. Robertson would offer an insight into his character, describing him as 'the most British foreign person I've ever met', with the pair sometimes joking that he was Irish, rather than Portuguese. If that were the case, he'd have been even closer to Liverpool than maybe even Jota realised, given the city's links with Dublin and the land beyond. Stories emerged of how he had touched the lives of others in ways that did not simply involve doing the business for Liverpool. One supporter, for example, posted a video online from four years ago when Jota sent his unwell father a personalised message with advice about keeping a positive frame of mind. Yet even if his personality away from the pitch did not always come through, Liverpudlians knew the footballer and this is enough for them to feel such an enormous sense of loss. Liverpool have become sadly familiar with seeing grief entwine with the fortunes of their football club in the last 40 years, but never in their modern history has an active first-team player passed away, never mind in circumstances as brutal as this. Liverpool as a place is sometimes told it is maudlin in reacting to tragedy, but anyone who knows anything about the city's past receives that as a Hillsborough slur: a suppressant following the worst stadium disaster in British history, when many wrongly believed lies pedalled by the authorities and sections of the media. There was certainly no over-reaction outside Anfield yesterday, as the afternoon drifted into a lazy summer's evening when, ordinarily, any troubled minds would not relate to football. Instead, it felt as though the club at the centre of this story, as well as the city that surrounds it, was still processing what had happened. As the sun went down, supporters were still there, staring into the middle distance, quietly saying prayers for a lost footballer who frequently delivered for them when it mattered.
Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Winger Gray returns to first club Birmingham
Demarai Gray has 27 caps for Jamaica and has spent the last two seasons at Saudi side Al-Ettifaq [Getty Images] Demarai Gray has returned to Birmingham City on a three-year contract. The Jamaica international winger has been with Saudi Arabian side Al-Ettifaq for the last two seasons but has joined the newly-promoted Blues for an undisclosed fee. Advertisement The Birmingham-born player made his senior debut for his hometown club as a 17-year-old in 2013 and played 78 games before joining Leicester City in 2016. He helped the Foxes win the Premier League title in his first season and also won England Under-21 honours before opting to play senior international football for Jamaica. After five years with Leicester, Gray had a six-month spell with Bayer Leverkusen and two seasons with Everton before joining Al-Ettifaq in September 2023. "To be back here now means a lot and having tasted success a bit throughout my career, I'm hungry and I really want to do it here with Birmingham and try and help the team get back to where we belong," Gray told the Blues website. Advertisement "It's something I've wanted for a long time. Seeing some old faces is always nice, to be back around the stadium brought back a lot of feelings and I can't wait to get going now, get back in front of the fans and see where this season can take us. "It's different to just signing for another club. For me to have the opportunity to come back home, be around my family, watch my son grow up, him being able to watch me play games, at the club I started at, makes sense. "Especially at the point of my career now, it's perfect. I'm happy, I'm excited, and I want to win things and be successful here in front of my family."
