Diogo Jota, Liverpool Soccer Star, Dies in Car Crash at 28

Mr. Jota and his brother André Silva died in Spain, the authorities said. The crash came two weeks after the Portuguese player’s wedding.

The Liverpool F.C. soccer star Diogo Jota, 28, was killed in a car crash in Spain early Thursday, according to the Spanish police.

Mr. Jota, a Portuguese forward who spent five seasons with Liverpool, died alongside his brother André Silva, 25, a professional soccer player in Portugal. The crash came less than two weeks after the Liverpool star was married.

“Liverpool Football Club are devastated by the tragic passing of Diogo Jota,” the team said in a statement, calling Mr. Jota’s death an “unfathomable loss.”

According to Spain’s Guardia Civil, emergency crews responded to an accident around 12:30 a.m. Thursday on the A-52 highway near Cernadilla, a town in northern Spain near the border with Portugal.

The Guardia Civil said in a statement that according to initial information, “a car left the road due to a tire blowout while overtaking,” adding that the car had caught fire and both occupants of the vehicle died. It identified the victims as Mr. Jota and his brother.

Spanish news media published photographs and video of a burned and shattered Lamborghini by the side of the highway where the accident occurred.

Mr. Jota recently married his longtime girlfriend, Rute Cardoso, on June 22. In photos posted by Mr. Jota on Instagram, the couple stands in front of an altar with their three children.

“Yes, forever,” Mr. Jota captioned the post, in Portuguese.

Mr. Jota was born in Porto, Portugal, as Diogo José Teixeira da Silva on Dec. 4, 1996. He went by Diogo Jota, meaning Diogo J. He began his soccer career in youth and professional leagues in Portugal and Spain.

Manuel José Vieira, 44, a former midfielder who played for Paços de Ferreira in Portugal when Mr. Jota joined the team in 2014, remembered immediately noticing his potential. “He was very bold,” Mr. Vieira said in a phone interview. “In one-on-one drills, he wasn’t afraid of even the most physical defenders. He’d take one or two hard knocks and get up as if nothing had happened.”

He added: “It’s not just Liverpool that’s losing a star. So is the Portuguese national team, football itself, and society as a whole.”

Mr. Jota moved to the English club Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. in 2017 and joined Liverpool in 2020 for 40 million British pounds ($50 million). He was a central part of the club’s Premier League title-winning season in 2024-25, scoring six goals in 26 league games.

His final goal for the club came against archrivals Everton in April. He collected the ball, beat two defenders and blasted the ball in the net from near the penalty spot. It was the only goal in a 1-0 victory.

Liverpool fans, as well as supporters of other teams, gathered outside Anfield, Liverpool’s stadium, on Thursday morning and left flowers, jerseys and scarves in tribute. Many referenced Liverpool’s motto, “You’ll never walk alone.” Liverpool’s town hall lowered its flag to half-staff.

Mr. Jota made 49 appearances for Portugal’s national team, starting in 2019, and scored 24 goals. His last match was Portugal’s victory over Spain in the UEFA Nations League final on June 8. Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese superstar who played alongside Mr. Jota on the national team, posted a photo of his teammate on Instagram Thursday morning.

“Doesn’t make any sense,” he wrote in Portuguese. “Just now we were together in the National Team, just now you were married. To your family, to your wife and children, I send my condolences and wish them all the strength in the world."

Fernando Santos, the former Portuguese national team manager who led the team from 2014 through 2022, recalled how Mr. Jota supported the team during the World Cup three years ago despite being unable to play because of an injury.

“Diogo was highly regarded by everyone in the national team,” Mr. Santos said in a text message. “He really wanted to play in the 2022 World Cup and came to Qatar just to support us. This says a lot about the person he was.”

André Silva, Mr. Jota’s brother, was a midfielder for Penafiel in Portugal’s second division, having joined the club in 2023. In a Portuguese-language statement, the club expressed “sincere condolences to the family, friends and all those who shared moments of life and passion for sport with André and Diogo.”

Mr. Jota was also a skilled player of soccer video games, particularly the FIFA and Football Manager franchises. In 2021 he reached No. 1 on the FIFA Ultimate Team Champions leaderboard, and he owned a gaming team, LUNA Esports.

“I was the only player that was playing in the Champions League and the eChampions League,” he told The Gamer in 2023.

F.C. Porto, a professional soccer club from the brothers’ hometown, expressed “shock and deep regret” over their deaths. Mr. Jota played for the club during the 2016-17 season, and his brother played with Porto’s youth teams. In a post on X, it included a photograph of both men in the club’s uniform.

Victor Mather and Tiago Carrasco contributed reporting.

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