Diogo Jota's grandad found out about Liverpool star's death on TV

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Diogo Jota in action for Liverpool(Image: Bradley Collyer/PA)

Diogo Jota’s heartbroken grandad revealed he found out about the car crash deaths of the Liverpool star and his footballer brother Andre Silva on the TV.

The pair tragically died in a car crash in Spain on July 3, 2025.

The forward had been driving to catch a ferry back to the UK ahead of joining up with his Liverpool teammates for preseason training when tragedy struck.



Diogo Jota joined Liverpool FC from Wolverhampton Wanderers in September 2020 in a £45m deal.

In a harrowing first interview since the July tragedy, Fernando Silva said: “I heard about it on television and at that point I only knew about Diogo.

I was watering the plants outside and my son-in-law, who was here with my daughter, said ‘Come inside, come inside, it’s late.'

“So I went inside, sat down on the sofa, turned on the television and found out right away.”

Revealing his wife Deolinda was only told the news later when a doctor was present after they left their home to go to a relative’s place, he added: “They are always with me in my thoughts, every day.”

Deolinda said: “If one had died it would have been very sad but both going like this is truly heartbreaking.”

Tributes are laid at Anfield for Diogo Jota and Andre Silva.(Image: Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

The couple opened up on their anguish in an emotional interview with Portuguese magazine TV 7 Dias.

They admitted they still know very little about the early-hours Spanish motorway crash which happened as dad-of-three Diogo was heading towards Santander with his brother to catch a ferry to the UK and carry on to Liverpool by car.

Fernando, pictured crying and hugging Rute at his grandsons’ funeral at a church in their hometown of Gondomar near Porto, told TV 7 Dias: “I don't even know how the accident happened, they didn't tell me.

“They say the car caught fire but I don't know anything else.

I didn't ask my son Joaquim anything and he didn't tell me anything either.”

Recalling his last conversation with the Liverpool winger the day before he died, he added: “I also played football, I played for many years and always followed them.

“Diogo’s last words to me, which were over the phone, were ‘Grandad, I'm like you’, because of football.”

Rute, reduced to tears last month as her husband’s former club Wolverhampton Wanderers remembered him in a touching tribute at Molineux, has now left Liverpool and moved back to Gondomar.

Fans paid tribute to Diogo Jota and Andre Silva.(Image: Octavio Passos/Getty Images)

Fernando said: “She has an employee with her.