Portugal and Liverpool star Diogo Jota dies in car accident in Spain, aged 28

Jota also played for Portugal’s national team. His brother Silva played with Portuguese club Penafiel in the lower divisions.

Jota arrived at Anfield from Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2020 and scored 65 goals in 182 appearances for the club in all competitions. He also had spells at Atlético de Madrid and Porto.

He also made 49 appearances for Portugal, twice winning the UEFA Nations League. 

The traffic accident reportedly took place on the A52 motorway in Cernadilla, in the province of Zamora. The city of Zamora is about 55 kilometres from the border with Portugal.

According to Spanish media, the Portuguese brothers died aboard a Lamborghini that, for reasons under investigation, left the Rías Bajas motorway (A52) while heading towards the town of Benavente, at around 12.40am on Thursday morning.

Spain’s news agency EFE reported that the car may have suffered a tyre blowout while overtaking, causing it to leave the road and catch fire.

Medical services on the scene could only confirm the deaths of the two occupants of the vehicle. According to Zamora’s provincial government, the bodies of the two occupants of the car were discovered charred.

Video obtained by Spanish media showed the car’s trajectory until it left the road and crashed into a fireball. Tyre marks showed where the Lamborghini careered off the road, while broken parts of the central reservation can be seen strewn across the ground.

Jota had married Rute Cardoso, the mother of his three children, just 10 days ago, describing himself as the luckiest man in the world to be her husband. He had shared moving footage of their wedding day in his final Instagram post on Wednesday afternoon.