23/10/2026
Rute Cardoso, Diogo Jota's wife, has recalled the night the Liverpool star was tragically killed in a car crash in July last year, in a new book Diogo Jota: Forever In Our Hearts:
This extract from the book details Rute's recollection of being informed of the devastating news: “Ever since my eldest son was born, I’ve become afraid of so many things. The week before, Diogo and I had talked about it – about the fear the children would be left to fend for themselves if anything were to happen to us. When I realised the messages weren’t being delivered, all that pessimism came flooding back.”
As if on autopilot, Rute rang a friend, Catarina, to ask if she had booked Diogo and André's room at the hotel in Benavente. Catarina hadn’t, but that she did know the name of the hotel. Straight away, Rute rang the hotel, asking if they had checked in two men who had said they would be arriving late. Two brothers in a green Lamborghini.
The hotel receptionist’s reply was delivered in a completely neutral tone. No, they had not yet arrived.
Bursting with anxiety, Rute rang André’s girlfriend Paula, who told her that she hadn’t spoken to him for a few hours. Rute asked her to try to get hold of him, then continued trying to get to the bottom of the situation herself. She felt like she had to keep trying things out, keep taking action, keep looking for answers. To simply wait seemed impossible.
She phoned a hospital in Benavente, but was told they were unable to provide that sort of information.
Next, she tried to contact the Spanish police, to no avail. Her nerves were starting to overwhelm her. Meanwhile, her sister Lídia had another idea: they could call Uncle Vítor, a lorry driver, who might be able to obtain more information from the police.
“I rang him,” Rute recalls, “explaining that I couldn’t get hold of Diogo and that they hadn’t arrived at the hotel yet. I asked if he could help me.”
On the other end of the line was a Spanish police officer who, after confirming that he was speaking to Rute Cardoso and that he had Jota’s ID in his possession, stated the following: “I hereby declare the death of Diogo Jose Teixeira da Silva, born on 4 December 1996.”
Rute took a moment before she let a tear fall. She remained in denial, adamant it could not be true. Her mother and mother-in-law wept with an almost inhuman despondency. Rute kept pacing back and forth, ranting, drawing on her last shreds of strength in a refusal to accept the situation.
She remembered how she used to tease Diogo about how lucky he was and how things always went well for him — personally, professionally, everything.
“I just kept saying to my friend Catarina: ‘This is a joke, it can’t be true. There’s no way in the world this can be true!’”
Time passed. Rute cannot say how long. Minutes that must have felt like a lifetime.
“My sister pulled me closer to her and spoke to my heart. Only then did I begin to accept. To understand.”
With professional detachment, the Spanish police informed Jota’s wife that she would have to go to the mortuary to collect his and his brother’s belongings.
“I told the driver I wanted us to take the same route that they had taken. I imagined that, so many hours on, there would be no traces left, but I wanted to know where it had happened. But when we reached that cursed Kilometre 64, what was left of the car was still there.”
Rute tried to get out of the car, but the rear doors were locked. She found herself banging on the glass from the inside, as if she herself were a frightened little girl. Eventually she rushed towards the scene, but she was stopped by a policeman who told her that she could remain at a distance and avoid etching that horrific image in her mind. Devastated, she agreed.
They proceeded to the mortuary, where Rute’s father was already waiting. She asked to see her husband’s body but was refused permission. She waited in a room and they showed her, on the other side of a small window, Diogo’s body on a stretcher and André’s inside a box. Both had been placed in a bag.
They gave her Jota’s watch, wallet and wedding ring. The bodies were transferred into vans and they all continued the journey to the funeral parlour. Finally, they returned to Portugal.
Rute travelled in the van with Diogo’s body, accompanied by Catarina. Exhausted, she finally fell asleep. Perhaps in a nightmare this would not be true.
