Porto suburb’s saddest day as Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva are laid to rest

This was Gondomar’s saddest day.

The Igreja Matriz de Gondomar church was overflowing. Mourners spilled out of the doors into the fierce morning heat.

And residents lined the streets nearby in the baking sunshine.

This eastern suburb of Porto was the focus of world football in a way never imagined, nor desired.

There was no raucous chanting. No attempts to chase selfies with mourners from the football world. Just sombre applause, as residents listened to an audio relay of the service, offered in solidarity with a family grieving.

Two days after dying together in a car crash in northern Spain, brothers Diogo Jota, a Liverpool striker, and fellow footballer Andre Silva were buried together.

It is a heartache no parent is prepared for.

Isabel and Joaquim Silva attending a joint funeral for both sons. A wife burying her husband of 11 days.

Addressing Rute Cardoso and the three children she had with Diogo, the Bishop of Porto, Manuel Linda, said: “If it is hard to see an adult cry, it is much harder to see a child cry.”

The family was left in no doubt how beloved the brothers were in their community, country and the sport they loved.

From Wolves – Jota’s first club in England – a message was brought on a wreath carried by João Moutinho, a teammate there and also with Portugal.

“Your desire to fight and win lit up Molineux,” it read, referring to the Wolverhampton Stadium.

Flowers in the shape of a football pitch were brought by Liverpool, featuring the brothers’ shirt numbers.

A number 20 for Liverpool’s scorer of 65 goals was carried by captain Virgil van Dijk.

Andy Robertson brought another featuring a number 30 – honouring Silva as the player in Portugal’s second division with Penafiel.

Both started their footballing journeys at Gondomar’s small local team.

“May their memory and love remain forever in our hearts,” read a message brought by Liverpool.

The last time they were together as a squad in May was to parade the Premier League trophy with Jota through Liverpool. Now they have broken off from summer holidays to mourn the man whose goals brought so much glory, who will never return to the team.

And in Gondomar you could find the proudest fans.

Fabio Silva came in a treasured shirt signed by Jota in which he scored one of 65 goals for the Reds on Boxing Day 2023.

“We in Portugal,” the 36-year-old said, “didn’t know how famous or how special Diogo was around the world”.

In the saddest of circumstances, now they know the world appreciated Jota’s talents as much as they did.

“Since Thursday, it has been some difficult days,” Fabio Silva added. “And for the family it will be very long weeks and months.”

Diogo Jota was only 28. Andre Silva, who went by the family’s surname, three years younger.

After enduring such trauma, so publicly, the family will surely look to grieve in private.

The hope will be that both are remembered by how they lived, and not how they died – as humble footballers and family men who inspired beyond their hometown.