Ruben Neves and Joao Cancelo both remained team-mates of the Liverpool star with the Portugal national team, with Al-Hilal midfielder Neves a close friend having grown together with Jota in England at former club Wolves
Ruben Neves and Joao Cancelo broke down in tears as tributes were paid at the FIFA Club World Cup to Diogo Jota and his younger brother Andre Silva, following their tragic deaths.
Neves and Cancelo, both long-time friends and international team-mates of the Liverpool star who sadly died on Thursday following a car crash in Spain, were playing their first match since news broke of the pair’s passing. But as a moment’s silence was held in Orlando Florida on Friday night, both Portuguese internationals appeared devastated.
Both ex-Wolves captain Neves and former Manchester City defender Cancelo had to be comforted by team-mates. After the tribute, a sobbing Neves had his face in his hands while Cancelo sank down on his haunches and wiped away tears as he tried to prepare to face Brazilian side Fluminense.
The pair had both elected to play for their club, Al Hilal, in Friday’s quarter-final. Head coach Simone Inzaghi had given the pair the option to miss the game if they were not feeling up to it. Both decided to play, with Neves posting a tribute on social media to Jota just an hour before kickoff.
The two players had been team-mates and friends since 2016, breaking through together at Porto, before joining Wolves in the same summer and firing the Black Country side from the second tier into Europe.
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In an emotional message, Neves wrote: “Bro, wherever you are, I know you’ll read this, we’ve never been this sloppy and maybe now I regret it a little, but you know what you mean to me as much as I know what I mean to you.
“More than a friendship, we’re family, and we won’t stop being that just because you’ve decided to sign a contract a little further away from us. When I go to the national team, you will continue to be by my side at the dinner table, on the bus, on the plane… you will always be there with me, as usual.
“Let’s keep laughing, making plans, sharing our life with each other. I’m going to make sure you’re always present and I’ll make sure that your loved ones never lack anything while you’re there, far away but thinking of us, waiting for us.
“Life has brought us together and now it can’t tear us apart. We’ve achieved some great things together, we still have a lot to go, I know we can. From today on, you will enter the field with me and we will follow our path together, on the stage where we met.
“Diogoal, you are my favourite lemonade!! Amo-te.”
Neves’ post came after he had initially posted on Thursday: “They say we only lose people when we forget them. I will never forget you.”
The world of football has been in mourning following the death of Jota and his younger brother on Thursday. Hundreds gathered at a wake in Portugal on Friday morning, ahead of the brothers’ funeral at the Igreja Matriz de Gondomar in Sao Cosme at 10am on Saturday. Initially held in private for family it was later opened up to the public.
Manchester City’s Bernardo Silva and Manchester United’s Diogo Dalot were both among those to pay tribute, along with a Liverpool contingent led by sporting director Richard Hughes and one of Jota’s best friends in football, another ex-Wolves and Portugal star, Joao Moutinho.