2025: Deaths of Jota, Pinto da Costa and Jorge Costa rocked Porto | OneFootball

Almost a month after helping the national team win the Nations League against European champions Spain—adding that triumph to the English Premier League title he won with Liverpool—forward Diogo Jota died in July in a car accident in Spain, which also claimed the life of his brother André Silva, a player for Penafiel in the Second Division.

Jota, aged 28, was preparing for his sixth season with the Reds, with whom he had won four trophies, but did not survive—nor did André, aged 25—and left behind his widow, Rute Cardoso, whom he had married eleven days earlier, after the birth of their three children.

The deaths of the two brothers received significant media attention and caused an outpouring of emotion among Portuguese and international personalities from football, politics, and music, who attended the funeral ceremonies in Gondomar; tributes continued in the following months, especially near Liverpool’s stadium, where a memorial was erected.

Liverpool retired the number 20 shirt from all its teams, as one of several tributes to Diogo Jota, who had worn that number at the club since his arrival at Anfield in 2020, and who played a part in winning the club’s 20th English league title last season.

A two-time Nations League winner with Portugal, with a total of 14 goals in 49 matches, the forward also played as a senior for Wolverhampton in England, as well as Paços de Ferreira and FC Porto, which this year bid farewell to two of its greatest icons.

Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa died in February at the age of 87, a victim of cancer, about ten months after losing the club’s election to former coach André Villas-Boas, by whom he was dubbed the “president of presidents,” after establishing himself as the most decorated and longest-serving football executive in the world between 1982 and 2024, with 69 senior trophies, including seven international ones—in total, he celebrated 2,591 trophies across 21 sports.

Out of respect for a request made during his predecessor’s lifetime—whose death did not elicit official reactions from Lisbon rivals Benfica and Sporting—Villas-Boas was absent from the funeral, which brought together hundreds of figures from sports and other sectors and commemorated a personality influential in the affirmation of the city of Porto and the northern region.

FC Porto fans created a memorial around Estádio do Dragão, just as they did in August, when former central defender and captain Jorge Costa died at the age of 53, after falling ill at the club’s training center in Olival, Vila Nova de Gaia.

With 50 caps and two goals for the national team, U-20 world champion in 1991, Jorge Costa led the professional football department of the ‘dragons’, winning 21 trophies between 1992 and 2005, including eight editions of the Primeira Liga, one Champions League, and one UEFA Cup.

Portuguese football also lost Joaquim Oliveira, aged 78, chairman of the board of Olivedesportos and the SportTV channel, a central figure in the promotion of television rights, advertising, and sports marketing.

Aurélio Pereira, one year younger, was responsible for Sporting’s scouting department, which discovered players such as Paulo Futre, Luís Figo, and Cristiano Ronaldo.

In 2025, the country also bid farewell to Artur Santos (94 years old), Morato (88), Cruz (85), José Carlos (83), Osvaldinho (79), and Baltazar (77), all former senior internationals.

Manuel Sérgio died at the age of 91, after a career as a university professor, parliamentarian, philosopher, and author of works on sports and human motricity, while in roller hockey, Júlio Rendeiro, who represented Sporting and coached the Portuguese national team, passed away at 83.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.