Family of Liverpool player Diogo Jota and his brother gather for wake after fatal crash

GONDOMAR, Portugal (AP) — Family and friends of Liverpool forward Diogo Jota and his brother gathered at a chapel where their bodies were brought for a wake on Friday, a day after the Portuguese soccer players were killed in a car crash.

Some hugged and wept before entering the Capela da Ressurreição São Cosme. The brothers’ parents attended, as well as Jota’s agent, Jorge Mendes. Mourners left flowers and candles next to a tree outside the chapel were visitation was held.

Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa also visited to pay his respects.

The chapel sits next to the Igreja Matriz de Gondomar church where the funeral for the siblings is planned for Saturday.

Gondomar resident Ricardo Alves lamented the loss of the local star as he passed by.

“It is a great sadness. Although I did not know him personally he was from here and I knew many of his friends from the region where he lived," Alves said. "It is a great loss, he is a young man, with a lot still to give and he had a somewhat tragic fate.”

Jota, 28, and his brother, André Silva, 25, were found dead near Zamora in northwestern Spain after the Lamborghini they were driving crashed on an isolated stretch of highway just after midnight on Thursday and burst into flames.

Their bodies were repatriated to Portugal after being identified by the family, Spanish government officials said.

Jota and his parents both have homes in Gondomar, where he started his playing career as a child. Gondomar is a working-class town next to Porto, where Jota was born.

Jota’s death occurred two weeks after he married long-time partner Rute Cardoso while on vacation from a long season where he helped Liverpool win the Premier League. The couple had three children, the youngest born last year.

Spanish police are investigating the cause of the crash, which did not involve another vehicle, they said. They said they believe it could have been caused by a blown tire.

Jota's brother Silva played for Portuguese club Penafiel in the lower divisions.

The loss was felt sharply in his hometown, especially at his first soccer club, where Jota started playing at age 9.

“He never forgot his roots, nor his friends, because he had a group of friends who were with him in the training here in Gondomar and who he even invited from time to time to go and watch Liverpool games in England," Gondomar SC director Anselmo Serra told The Associated Press. “They were like a group of friends that he never forgot over the years.”

Jota and his brother were driving overnight to catch a boat from Santander, on Spain’s northern coast, to go to England to rejoin Liverpool, when they crashed, according to Portuguese media.

Portuguese sports website Record published a video interview with Miguel Gonçalves, who said he worked as a physical therapist for Jota. Gonçalves told Record that Jota was avoiding flying due to a lung condition that he recently treated.

“I was in his house at night for a last treatment,” Gonçalves said. “He was proud to have recovered from his pulmonary problem. He was happy to be with his brother. They were excited to spend some time together on the trip.”

Spanish police have yet to say which brother was driving.

Condolences poured in from Portuguese officials and the world of soccer as news of the accident spread.

A moment of silence was held before Portugal played Spain at the Women’s European Championship in Switzerland late Thursday.

For a second day, Liverpool fans laid flowers and scarves outside Anfield Stadium. Former Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson was among those to place a bouquet at the impromptu memorial to Jota.

Liverpool's players are not due back from their summer break until Monday.

Mohamed Salah wrote on social media that it will be hard to return to the team without Jota.

“Teammates come and go but not like this. It’s going to be extremely difficult to accept that Diogo won’t be there when we go back,” Salah wrote. “My thoughts are with his wife, his children, and of course his parents who suddenly lost their children. Those close to Diogo and his brother Andre need all the support they can get. They will never be forgotten.”

Wilson reported from Barcelona, Spain. David Biller in Rome and photojournalist Manu Fernández in Gondomar contributed.

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Liverpool supporters wearing shirts in memory of Diogo Jota at Anfield Stadium, home of Liverpool, who has died at the age of 28, in Liverpool, England, Friday July 4, 2025. (Peter Byrne/PA via AP)

People gather at the church where the bodies of Liverpool forward Diogo Jota and André Silva have been brought for a wake and funeral in Gondomar, near Porto, Portugal, on Friday, July 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

President of Portugal Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, center, arrives at a church where the bodies of Liverpool forward Diogo Jota and André Silva have been brought for a wake and funeral, in Gondomar, near Porto, Portugal, on Friday, July 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Soccer agent Jorge Mendes arrives at the church where the bodies of Liverpool forward Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva have been brought for a wake and funeral in Gondomar, near Porto, Portugal, on Friday, July 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Joaquim, center, father of Liverpool forward Diogo Jota and his brother, is embraced at a church where their bodies have been brought for a wake and funeral, in Gondomar, near Porto, Portugal, on Friday, July 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Family and friends of Liverpool forward Diogo Jota and his brother, hold flowers as they arrive at a church where their bodies have been brought for a wake and funeral, in Gondomar, near Porto, Portugal, on Friday, July 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Joaquim, center, father of Liverpool forward Diogo Jota and his brother, arrives accompanied by other relatives at a church where their bodies have been brought for a wake and funeral, in Gondomar, near Porto, Portugal, on Friday, July 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

The site of the car accident in which Liverpool player Diogo Jota and his brother died in the north-western city of Zamora, Spain, Thursday, July 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Emilio Fraile)

A fan holds a sign with the Portuguese word "Eternal" in memory of Portuguese international footballer Diogo Jota, who lost his life in a car crash in Spain, before the Euro 2025, group B, soccer match between Spain and Portugal at Stadion Wankdorf in Bern, Switzerland, Thursday, July 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

Portugal's players hold a banner with the words "Thank you for everything. Rest in peace." for Portuguese soccer player Diogo Jota who died in a car accident in Spain, after the Euro 2025, group B, soccer match between Spain and Portugal at Stadion Wankdorf in Bern, Switzerland, Thursday, July 3, 2025. (Peter Klaunzer/Keystone via AP)

A woman at Adolfo Suarez Madrid-Barajas Airport in Madrid, reads a newspaper showing on its front page the car involved in the crash in which Liverpool player Diogo Jota and his brother died in the north-western city of Zamora, Spain, Friday, July 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

FILE - Liverpool's Diogo Jota celebrates scoring during the Premier League match at Carrow Road, Norwich, Saturday Aug. 14, 2021. (Joe Giddens/PA via AP, File)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Kuwait briefly shut its main airport Wednesday after Iranian drones heavily damaged a passenger terminal, killed one person and wounded dozens — the latest in back-and-forth attacks by Iran and the U.S. that test a fragile ceasefire.

The strike reinforced the risks to residents and travelers in Gulf countries that had considered themselves relative havens before the war, now in its fourth month.

Talks have dragged on for weeks as mediators seek a more enduring truce in the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. They are increasingly strained by Israel’s broadening war with Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.

A regional official said Iran wanted a separate ceasefire in Lebanon enforced before returning to talks. U.S. President Donald Trump said negotiations continue.

The fighting in Lebanon has also exposed a rift between Israel and the U.S., which is pushing its ally for restraint. In a measure of the friction, Trump acknowledged that he'd called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “crazy” during a phone call earlier this week. Nonetheless, both men say their rapport is solid.

Iran maintains its hold on the Strait of Hormuz — a crucial waterway for the world’s oil and natural gas and related products like fertilizer — and the U.S. continues its blockade of Iranian ports. Global fuel prices remain high, and the effects of the conflict are felt well beyond the region.

In Washington, House Speaker Mike Johnson said he, Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio huddled for three hours at the White House Monday as Trump worked on “that final piece” of getting commerce flowing. Rubio, meanwhile, faced grilling in Congress over the war and its economic fallout.

A spokesperson for Kuwait's Defense Ministry, Brig. Gen. Saud Abdulaziz Al-Otaibi, said “a number of hostile drones” targeted a passenger building at Kuwait International Airport. It had opened only Monday after a months-long closure because of the war, which began Feb. 28 with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran.

India’s embassy said the person killed was an Indian national. Authorities said 63 were wounded, including passengers and workers, and some suffered serious injuries.

Kuwait's Defense Ministry said it destroyed over a dozen missiles and a similar number of drones from Iran.

The airport partially reopened later, with Kuwait Airways flights resuming at a different terminal, according to civil aviation authorities. No other flights were operating.

The Foreign Ministry said Kuwait will “neither accept nor tolerate” the attacks and was kicking out two Iranian diplomats. Such expulsions are an established means of communicating international ire.

The U.S. military said two Iranian missiles fell apart en route to Kuwait and that it “downed multiple drones” targeting American forces in the country.

The military also said U.S. and Bahraini forces intercepted missiles aimed at the Gulf kingdom, home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th fleet. Bahrain’s Defense Ministry said its military intercepted and destroyed three missiles and a number of drones fired by Iran.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard acknowledged that it targeted the headquarters of the 5th Fleet and U.S. military facilities in another country, but did not name Kuwait.

Both the U.S. and Iran said they were retaliating for earlier attacks or attempted ones.

Netanyahu told the American business-news channel CNBC that Iran was “playing with fire,” but he said any decision about whether to scale up a military response would rest with Trump. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi declared on X that “any hostile act will be met with an immediate, decisive response.”

The U.S. military said it launched strikes on an Iranian military ground control station on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran's Foreign Ministry condemned the U.S. strikes on the island, where it said a telecommunications tower was struck, and other previous strikes. It called them “acts of aggression” that it said violated the ceasefire.

Israeli forces have moved deeper into Lebanon than at any time in over a quarter-century, while Hezbollah has launched rocket and drone attacks. The declared ceasefire in Lebanon is officially in place, and no side has formally withdrawn or declared it over even as attacks continue.

Iran insists that any larger potential truce must quell the fighting in Lebanon. Netanyahu wants to keep the issues separate and is under domestic pressure to strike Hezbollah as he prepares for elections this fall.

In a podcast interview released Wednesday, Trump confirmed a report that he had called Netanyahu “crazy” Monday in a phone conversation peppered with an expletive. Trump told The New York Post’s “Pod Force One” that he was “a little bit perturbed” that Israel’s fight with Hezbollah was holding back talks with Iran.

Still, Trump said his relationship with Netanyahu was good, and “we’ve worked very well together.”

Netanyahu responded that he and Trump sometimes have “tactical disagreements” but have “common goals” and “agree on the main things.”

“He respects me. I respect him. We always find a way to work out our differences,” the prime minister said on CNBC.

Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Elena Becatoros in Athens, Greece, Sheikh Saaliq in New Delhi, Sam Mednick in Jerusalem, Jennifer Peltz in New York and Lisa Mascaro and Konstantin Toropin in Washington contributed to this report.

People swim on a public beach as smoke, background, rises from an Israeli airstrike that hit the Qlaileh village, seen from the southern port city of Tyre, Lebanon, Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike that hit Burj al-Shamali village near the southern port city of Tyre, Lebanon, Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

A woman holds a poster of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei during a pro-government gathering at Islamic Revolution Square in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, May 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

People gather on paddleboards in shallow water as cargo and service vessels are anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Monday, June 1, 2026. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)