Closing summary
We are now closing the live blog. Here is a summary of events today:
It was confirmed this morning that the Liverpool forward Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva died last night in a car crash in Zamora, Spain. The pair were in a Lamborghini when a tyre, reportedly, exploded and the car went off the road and burst into flames. The brothers were on their way to Santander to get a ferry back to England at the time of the incident.
Tributes have poured in from across the world for Jota and Silva. The former Liverpool had coach Jurgen Klopp said he was “heartbroken” by the news.
There will be a minute’s silence held at the two Women’s European Championship fixtures tonight, including Spain v Jota’s homeland of Portugal.
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Diogo Jota’s brother André Silva, who died with the Liverpool forward in the car accident, was also a professional footballer and played as a midfielder for the Portuguese second division team Penafiel.
Silva spent six years in Porto’s esteemed academy as he tried to follow in his older brother’s footsteps. The pair were at Porto at the same time in 2016-17, Jota joining on loan from Atlético Madrid while his brother was in the youth setup. Silva then moved to Paços de Ferreira, where Jota started his career, but could not match his brother’s trajectory and spent time in the youth ranks at Famalicão and Boavista.
The brothers have different surnames because Jota was chosen by Diogo to distinguish him from the relatively common Silva. André, however, stuck with the family name. He never gave up on his dream of becoming a professional, despite being discarded by a number of clubs along the way.
In the end, Silva returned home to Gondomar where he was born and brought up, joining the local team in the lower ranks of Portuguese football. Two seasons with the team he had played for before he was spotted by Porto convinced Penafiel to move for the attacking midfielder. He had played there in the second tier for the past two seasons, becoming a regular in the side and was regarded as a good player at that level, helping the team finish comfortably in 11th last season.
Silva was studious and completed a university degree in business management while playing professionally to help for a life outside football. Silva was a skilful midfielder who could play centrally but more regularly was used as a winger. He scored seven and created three goals in 62 games for Penafiel.
“André brought different things to our game, a lot of speed,” Hélder Cristóvão, who coached Silva at Penafiel for those two seasons, told Sport TV. “More than the footballer, we have to talk about the person. A very well-rounded kid. He just finished his management course at university. He never stopped studying, he always continued to study and work. Football is of little importance. The most important thing is to support my family, who must be devastated.”
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