Liverpool and Portugal forward Diogo Jota and his younger brother Andre Silva, who perished in a road accident in Spain early this week, will be buried today.
The bodies of the two 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.
Dozens of mourners were already standing outside at the church last night and tears rolled down their faces as the hearses transporting the two bodies arrived after 11pm.
The funeral is set for today Saturday at a church nearby at 10:00 a.m. local time, Gondomar’s mayor’s office said.
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 Saint-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.
Jota was making his way back to Liverpool by car after he was told he should avoid plane travel for up to six 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.
