Heartbroken supporters packed the streets outside a church in Gondomar, Northern Portugal, on Thursday night to pay their respects to the remains of Portugal international Diogo Jota and his younger brother Andre.
Before an early morning wake, hearses carrying the brothers’ coffins arrived at the Capela de Ressurreicao shortly after 11 p.m., causing tears to fall down the faces of mourners, according to Dailymail.
When Jota’s Lamborghini Huracan’s tire allegedly ruptured when she was passing another car, the two siblings tragically died in an early-am car crash at Cernadilla, which is just across the Spanish border, on Thursday morning.
Both brothers were instantly killed when the supercar swerved off the A-52 motorway, rolled several times, and caught fire.
Angel Blanco, a Spanish government official, verified that the twins passed away on the spot before help could arrive. Firefighters responded quickly after the crash’s impact burned surrounding foliage. Which of the brothers was driving at the time of the collision is still unknown, according to the authorities.
According to Jose Macedo, the parish priest in the area, the wake will start in the chapel at 8 a.m. today, and the funeral ceremony will take place at the Igreja Matriz, the nearby Catholic church, on Saturday at 10 a.m.
“We are available to share the suffering and the Christian hope, as well as to celebrate their life with everyone”, Macedo stated.
The bodies were first carried to a funeral home in Puebla de Sanabria, Spain, where hearses were spotted earlier Thursday afternoon.
Jorge Mendes, Diogo Jota’s agent, was seen walking the football player’s mother into the burial home and offering support to the grieving family. “We lost two wonderful individuals. As a human, a spouse, a son, and a professional, Diogo is an example. I still find it hard to believe. “It’s really challenging,” Mendes stated with tears in his eyes.
Jota’s hometown of Porto is only thirty minutes away from Gondomar, and the procession reached late at night.
The wake is being held in the city where, just two weeks ago, the 28-year-old forward married Rute Cardoso, his childhood sweetheart, in front of close friends and family.
After deciding against flying because of Jota’s recent lung operation, Jota and Andre, both 26, were reportedly driving towards Santander in order to take a ferry to the UK.
