Portuguese footballer Diogo Jota, brother die in car crash in Spain

Liverpool's Portuguese international forward Diogo Jota and his brother Andre died in the early hours of Thursday morning in a car accident in north-east Spain, reported Xinhua, quoting Spanish authorities.

The regional government deputation of the province of Zamora, which is next to Portugal, confirmed the news with a communique on social media informing that "two young people died in an accident on the A52 road at Palacios de Sanabria", adding that the fire brigade were at the scene of the accident and that the vehicle had caught fire, causing the flames to spread to the surrounding vegetation.

The cause of the accident is still unknown, but an early hypothesis is that a tire burst in the Lamborghini sports car the brothers were travelling in, causing it to go off the road and burst into flames, killing both of the occupants at around 00:30 local time (22:30 GMT).

Jota had married his long-term partner Rute Cardoso just 10 days ago on June 22 and the pair have three small children.

The 28-year-old, who joined Liverpool from Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2020, have scored 65 goals in 182 appearances for the Premier League champions. He also scored 14 times in 49 games for Portugal.

His 26-year-old brother was also a professional footballer, who played for Portuguese second division side Penafiel.

Portugal national team captain Cristiano Ronaldo expressed profound shock at the death of Diogo Jota and his brother.

In a post on his social media platform X, Ronaldo wished salvation of their departed souls.