Body of Liverpool footballer Jota arrives in Portugal for hometown wake

(Reuters): The bodies of Liverpool footballer Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva arrived in northern Portugal on Friday for a wake in their hometown, as tributes continued to pour in after they died in a car accident in Spain.

A convoy of hearses left for Gondomar near Porto on Thursday evening from the morgue of Puebla de Sanabria, near where the Lamborghini the brothers were travelling in had veered off the road and burst into flames after midnight early on Thursday. Police said they suspected a tyre had burst.

Jota’s wife Rute Cardoso, who had married the footballer just weeks earlier, was seen leaving the morgue and joining the convoy, as was Jota’s longtime agent Jorge Mendes.

A wake is expected to take place at a chapel in Gondomar from 4pm (8pm PKT) and a funeral on Saturday at a church nearby at 10am local time, Gondomar’s mayor’s office said.

Portugal’s Prime Minister Luis Montenegro arrived in the village on Friday morning.

The death of Jota at the age of 28 has jolted the world of football, with messages of homage pouring in from former teammates, clubs, national leaders and fans.

Outside Liverpool’s Anfield stadium fans left flowers, scarves and hand-written notes, many from children.

Football clubs including Paris St Germain, who have several Portuguese internationals in their squad, Bayern Munich, Chelsea and Real Madrid observed a moment of silence during training for their matches in the Club World Cup taking place in the United States.

Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca said on Thursday that forward Pedro Neto was weighing whether to play in Friday’s quarter-final against Palmeiras, as the Portuguese international mourns the tragic death of his close friend.

Jota’s manager at Liverpool, Arne Slot, said in a statement on Thursday that his thoughts were with his family.

“My message to them is very clear you will never walk alone,” Slot said.

“For us as a club, the sense of shock is absolute. Diogo was not just our player. He was a loved one to all of us. He was a teammate, a colleague, a workmate and in all of those roles he was very special,” he added.

Jota was making his way back to Liverpool by car after he was told he should avoid plane travel for up to 6 weeks following lung surgery to address a fractured rib, his physiotherapist Miguel Goncalves told broadcaster Now late on Thursday.

Goncalves said Jota was recovering well from the pneumothorax surgery and that he had planned to take a ferry to the UK from Spain.