When Portugal take to the pitch against Croatia in Toronto on Thursday evening, they will do so knowing there is more than just national pride at stake. For head coach Roberto Martinez and his players, their upcoming round-of-32 tie is not only an opportunity to take a step closer to realizing their World Cup dream, but also a chance to honor the late Diogo Jota on the eve of a poignant anniversary.
By the time the action gets underway in Canada, calendar pages back home in Portugal will already be turned to July 3 — marking exactly one year since Jota and his brother André Silva died in a car accident in western Spain.
Twelve months on from a tragedy that rocked the football world, the profound scale of the loss remains almost incomprehensible. The brothers were 28 and 25 years old respectively, renowned for their ability as professional footballers but missed most keenly for their impact away from the pitch.
Silva was an attacking midfielder for Portuguese second-tier side Penafiel and had graduated from university with a degree in business management in 2025. A father of three, Jota was a Premier League champion with Liverpool and had married his childhood sweetheart, Rute Cardoso, just 11 days before his death.
Last summer, Arne Slot — Jota’s head coach at Liverpool — described the forward as a “champion in everything” and that was also true on the international stage, Jota having been part of the Portugal squad that won the UEFA Nations League in June 2025.
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His ambition when he lifted that trophy in Germany was to follow it up with a successful World Cup this year. That he was denied the opportunity to fulfil his wish of competing for the first time at football’s showpiece tournament has only strengthened the resolve of the Portugal camp.
“I think we need to honor Diogo Jota,” Martinez said after Portugal’s 0-0 draw with Colombia on Saturday. “I think it’s a moment to cherish that everything we started in this team started with him. We won the Nations League with him. He’s probably the sign and the light of the biggest stimulation that we have. We want to win the World Cup for him.”
It is a noble aspiration, though one that might perhaps prove beyond a Portugal side whose only group stage win came against an Uzbekistan team ranked 60th in the world. Still, Jota’s memory remains a galvanizing presence, with some players having chosen to wear wristbands bearing his name for the duration of the tournament.
The brothers’ parents, Joaquim and Isabel, were in attendance at Portugal’s opening match against Congo DR, where an emotional tribute was paid to Jota before the match.
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Joaquim and Isabel are also among the dozens of contributors to Jota’s official biography, written by former professional goalkeeper and esteemed Portuguese journalist José Manuel Delgado. Titled “Diogo Jota, Never Again Is Too Long,” the book was commissioned by the Portuguese Football Federation and draws on extensive interviews with the forward’s friends and family, including his wife, Rute.
“It’s not a book about football, it’s a book about people,” Delgado told ESPN. “I spoke to 80 or 90 people and all of them wanted to speak, even though it was hurtful. It gave them pain to talk about Diogo, but everyone felt they owed it to him to speak so that his memory could be kept in the book.
“None of the interviews were easy but people wanted to help. I spoke with Rute about the importance the book would have for his three children. We decided it would be a very good way for them to know their father. It was this thought that made his family suffer through dozens of hours of interviews. It was not easy but it was not meant to be easy.”
On Merseyside, too, time has done little to dilute the sense of grief among players and fans alike. Jota joined Liverpool from Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2020 and went on to score 65 goals in 182 appearances across five seasons at the club, earning a reputation as a potent finisher inside the 18-yard box.
Read more:Andoni Iraola the frontrunner to succeed Slot as Liverpool boss
That his final career goal was a well-taken winner against Everton in the Merseyside derby to move Liverpool three points closer to the Premier League title was emblematic of a player adept at delivering in big moments. But it was his warm, humble personality that most endeared him to supporters at Anfield, and to those he shared a dressing room with.
For senior members of the squad, including Jota’s close friend Andy Robertson, the burden of that grief has been particularly hard to carry. Robertson had been one of a few Liverpool players to travel to Portugal for Jota’s wedding last June and, in one of his final interviews before leaving Merseyside to join Tottenham Hotspur, the defender spoke candidly about the enduring anguish he and his teammates continue to navigate.
“We can’t hide away from it, and it is not an excuse, but what we went through in the summer, no team will ever go through; no member of staff will go through,” Robertson told ESPN, and a handful of other media outlets, in May. “I hope they never go through it because the devastation we went through, football didn’t matter. We didn’t care about football for weeks; none of us wanted to train. That was the reality.
“You were getting treatment from physios, and physios didn’t want to treat you. Do you know what I mean? That is the reality of it. As footballers, we then of course have a duty; we have to move on, we have to keep going and we managed that.”
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Robertson also spoke to Delgado, helping to paint a detailed picture of a player and a man for whom those who knew him reserved only the most glowing of appraisals.
“I spoke to a lot of people at Liverpool, from Arne Slot to the players to the medical staff. They all said Diogo was very genuine,” Delgado said. “I think it was Slot who said he was the ‘glue’ in the changing room. He was the kind of person who was loved by everyone and he kept a good mood in the team.
“Here in Portugal, I did not understand why everybody in Liverpool reacted so strongly when Diogo died. But when I went there, I understood. Some of the fans told me that Liverpool is a club that has passed through many tragedies and one that is used to going on after difficult situations. Many people there prefer to spend their money watching Liverpool play and all they wish from the players is that they give everything they have.
“One of the guys told me that if any Liverpool supporter was good enough to play for the club and have a place in the team, he would like to be Diogo Jota because he was the perfect example of the Liverpool spirit. He gave everything for the shirt and the fans admired him a lot for that. The fans told me they didn’t care that he wasn’t born in Liverpool because his spirit made it seem like he was.”
Certainly, that spirit will always live on at Anfield, where Jota’s No. 20 shirt has been retired and a permanent memorial to both brothers is soon set to be displayed. But, as the forward’s famous terrace chant goes, he will also be remembered as “a lad from Portugal” and, as such, there will be a swathe of supporters on Merseyside rooting for Jota’s homeland this summer.
“Obviously, every day is difficult,” Martinez said this week. “When you are training, there are always moments that Diogo Jota comes back into our memories. So I wouldn’t say that the anniversary needs to be especially difficult. I would say that it’s a little bit of a celebration.”
When Martinez named his World Cup squad in May, he reserved an honorary spot on the roster for Jota, describing the country’s travelling party to North America as 27 players “plus one.”
Should Portugal defeat Croatia at Toronto Stadium, the memory of their extra man will only sharpen their desire to make this a summer to remember.
