Premier League footballer Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva, a professional player for Portuguese side Penafiel, have died after being involved in a car accident in Spain.
Local police confirmed to The Athletic the incident occurred at 00:30 local time on Thursday morning on the A-52 — a 400km carriageway running from Madrid to the Spanish province of Galicia, north of Portugal — in the province of Zamora, in north west Spain.
The car, which was occupied by 28-year-old Jota and Silva, 26, went off the road and suffered an impact, causing the vehicle to catch fire, local authorities confirmed.
Jota was recently married to Rute Cardoso in his home city of Porto, in northern Portugal, around 300km to the west of Zamora. The couple have three children.
Liverpool Football Club are devastated by the tragic passing of Diogo Jota.
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) July 3, 2025
Liverpool’s statement on Thursday read: “Liverpool FC will be making no further comment at this time and request the privacy of Diogo and Andre’s family, friends, teammates and club staff is respected as they try to come to terms with an unimaginable loss.
“We will continue to provide them with our full support.”
A statement from Pedro Proenca, the president of the Portuguese Football Federation, said that the “whole of Portuguese football are completely devasted” by the news of both footballers.
“Much more than a fantastic player, with almost 50 caps for the national team, Diogo Jota was an extraordinary person, respected by all his team-mates and opponents, someone with a contagious joy and a reference point in his own community,” read the statement, which offered condolences to Liverpool and Penafiel.
“On behalf of myself and the Portuguese Football Federation, I would like to express our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Diogo and André Silva, as well as to Liverpool FC and FC Penafiel, the clubs the players played for respectively.
“The Portuguese Football Federation has already asked UEFA to hold a minute’s silence this Thursday ahead of our national team’s match against Spain in the Women’s European Championship.
“We’ve lost two champions. The deaths of Diogo and Andre Silva represent irreparable losses for Portuguese football and we will do everything we can to honour their legacy on a daily basis.”
Jota signed for Liverpool from Wolverhampton Wanderers in September 2020 for a fee of £45million and went on to become a fixture of the side under former manager Jurgen Klopp. He helped the side win both the FA Cup and the Carabao Cup in his second season at the club and reach the final of the Champions League.
Used as a centre-forward as well as a winger, as a starter and off the bench, Jota made 182 appearances for Liverpool, scoring 65 times. In the 2024-25 season, head coach Arne Slot’s first season at the club, Jota scored nine goals in all competitions as Liverpool won the Premier League, the first league title of Jota’s career.
After progressing through the youth system at Portuguese club Pacos de Ferreira, from the Porto District, Jota made his debut for the senior side in 2014 and went on to make 47 appearances for the club.
Jota was signed by Atletico Madrid in 2016 but was loaned out to Porto in August of that year, where he scored nine goals in 38 appearances.
The forward joined then-Championship side Wolverhampton Wanderers on loan for 2017-18, helping them achieve promotion to the Premier League as champions. His move to Molineux was made permanent in January 2018, departing Atletico without ever featuring for the team.
He scored nine league goals in his first top flight season with Wolves, helping the side achieve their best ever Premier League league finish of seventh and qualify for the Europa League, their first European campaign since 1980-81.
Another seventh-place finish followed in 2019-20, Jota’s final season at Wolves. He scored 44 goals in 131 appearances for the club.
A Portugal international since 2019, Jota was capped 49 times and scored 14 goals, winning the UEFA Nations League in 2019 and 2025.
Jota’s brother, Andre Silva, played for Portuguese second division side Penafiel, from the Porto District.
Silva played for Porto’s youth teams up to under-17 level, before in 2017 joining Pacos de Ferreira, where his elder brother Diogo had played for the first team in the previous two seasons.
The midfielder later had spells at Familicao and Boavista, but did not play at first-team level and was involved in the under-23 squad for both clubs.
In 2021, Silva joined lower division side Gondomar, where he spent two seasons, before moving to Penafiel in July 2023.
This story will be updated.
(Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
