Rute Cardoso has described the night she lost her husband, Liverpool forward Diogo Jota, and his brother André Silva, recalling how an ordinary message sent as the pair began a road journey became the last exchange between them.
In the biography Diogo Jota: Forever in Our Hearts, Cardoso recounts the hours of growing alarm after Jota and André set off towards Santander, where Jota was due to continue on to the United Kingdom for Liverpool’s pre-season preparations.
The journey to Santander
- Jota travelled by road after doctors advised him against flying following surgery.
- He and André hired a Lamborghini Huracán, which was to be returned in Santander. Cardoso said the choice surprised her, as Jota had not previously shown much interest in luxury cars or jewellery and had been content with the vehicles they already owned.
- The Liverpool player had tried a Ferrari before his wedding, but ultimately chose the Lamborghini for the trip.
- As the brothers departed, Cardoso sent her husband a message wishing him a safe journey. He replied with an emoji, and she answered: “Keep your eyes on the road.”
Messages unanswered
Concern set in as the hours passed without further contact. Cardoso later sent Jota a wedding video she had just received, but the message was not delivered. Her attempts to reach André also brought no response.
The brothers had been expected at a hotel in Benavente. Cardoso telephoned the hotel and was told they had not arrived. She then contacted a hospital and local police, but could not establish what had happened.
- With no clear information, Cardoso called her uncle Vitor, a lorry driver who had contacts within Spain’s transport police.
- While they were speaking, she overheard him asking her brother-in-law Nuno for the phone. In the quiet of the night, she heard the words: “They are taking the bodies away.” She believes he may also have said they were being taken to the morgue.
- Cardoso said that was the point at which everything became a blur. Her sister took the phone to speak with Vitor while she began calling close relatives.
- Her first calls were to Jota’s father and to Paula, André’s girlfriend, asking them to come as quickly as possible.
- Vitor later rang again and handed the phone to a Spanish police officer, who formally confirmed that both brothers had died.
At the scene
Cardoso asked to be driven along the route taken by Jota and André in order to reach the crash site. “I told the driver that I wanted us to follow the same road they had travelled,” she recalled.
When she reached the location at kilometre 64, the wreckage of the Lamborghini was still there. She tried to move closer but was stopped by a police officer.
Jota and André died on 3 July 2025. Cardoso had married Jota only a short time before the accident and has since faced the loss alongside the couple’s three children.
