Soccer stars and Diogo Jota’s family gather for funeral of Liverpool player and his brother

Dio­go Jota’s fam­i­ly and for­mer Liv­er­pool team­mates gath­ered in Gon­do­mar, Por­tu­gal on Sat­ur­day for the funer­al of the late soc­cer star and his broth­er, André Sil­va.

Jota, 28, and his 25-year-old broth­er – who was also a pro­fes­sion­al foot­baller – died in a car crash in Spain ear­ly on Thurs­day morn­ing, plung­ing the soc­cer world into mourn­ing

Jota’s wife Rute Car­doso, with whom he shares three young chil­dren and who he mar­ried less than two weeks before the crash, was pic­tured embrac­ing oth­er mourn­ers as she arrived at the church ahead of the ser­vice, which last­ed about an hour on Sat­ur­day morn­ing

Liv­er­pool cap­tain Vir­gil van Dijk and left back Andy Robert­son led the trib­utes from Jota’s for­mer club, car­ry­ing bunch­es of red flow­ers in the shape of the two broth­ers’ jer­seys

They were accom­pa­nied by oth­er mem­bers of the team, includ­ing Alex­is Mac Allis­ter, Dar­win Núñez and Ibrahi­ma Konaté. The team’s man­ag­er, Arne Slot, along with CEO Michael Edwards, was also present.

Lat­er, bells rang out at the church as a long line of mourn­ers accom­pa­nied the broth­ers’ coffins inside. Por­tu­gal star Rúben Neves, Jota’s for­mer team­mate with the nation­al team and with Wolver­hamp­ton Wan­der­ers, was among the pall­bear­ers. Anoth­er­per­son walked in front of the coffins, car­ry­ing a black-and-white pho­to of Sil­va that read “Para Sem­pre Um De Nos” – “For­ev­er One Of Us.”

Dio­go Jota’s wife Rute Car­doso and her sis­ter grieve as for­mer team­mates car­ry the broth­ers’ coffins into the church. Miguel Riopa/AFP/Getty Images

Fig­ures from Portugal’s nation­al soc­cer team, includ­ing its head coach Rober­to Martínez, Man­ches­ter City stars Rúben Dias and Bernar­do Sil­va, Man­ches­ter Unit­ed cap­tain Bruno Fer­nan­des and Chelsea for­ward João Félix were also in Gon­do­mar, near Por­to, on Sat­ur­day morn­ing.

Today was a day that we showed that we are a very, very large but close fam­i­ly,” Martínez told reporters out­side the church. “We are Por­tu­gal … we are togeth­er and we will always be togeth­er.”

The bish­op of Por­to, Manuel Lin­da, deliv­ered an emo­tion­al homi­ly addressed to the broth­ers’ par­ents as well as Jota’s wife and their three young chil­dren, say­ing “sol­i­dar­i­ty in love is always stronger than death,” per Reuters.

The funer­al on Sat­ur­day comes after a wake for the broth­ers’ fam­i­ly was held on Fri­day morn­ing at a church in their home­town of Gon­do­mar, the church told CNN. It added that the doors at the Igre­ja Mar­tiz de Gon­do­mar were open to the pub­lic on Fri­day after­noon.

Fri­day also saw trib­utes con­tin­ue to pour in from around the world. In the Club World Cup, moments of silence were held before the games, with Al-Hilal duo Neves and João Can­ce­lo, as well as Chelsea winger Pedro Neto – all for­mer team­mates of Jota’s with the Por­tu­gal nation­al team – all look­ing vis­i­bly emo­tion­al.

British rock band Oasis also hon­ored Jota, ded­i­cat­ing their song “Live For­ev­er” to the 28-year-old dur­ing their reunion con­cert in Cardiff, Wales.

In Lon­don, Por­tuguese ten­nis play­ers Fran­cis­co Cabral and Nuno Borges, who were com­pet­ing at Wim­ble­don, were giv­en per­mis­sion by orga­niz­ers to stray from the tournament’s strict all-white dress code to hon­or Jota