By Ayobami Okerinde

Following the news of Diogo Jota’s tragic passing in a car accident on Thursday, Liverpool has announced that the club’s number 20 shirt, worn last the Portugues forward, will be ‘rightly immortalised’.

Jota and his brother, Andre Silva, died in a car crash in Spain overnight on Thursday.

According to AFP, the Civil Guard said a vehicle veered off a motorway and burst into flames shortly after midnight in the municipality of Cernadilla in the northwestern Zamora province, confirming the deaths of Jota, 28, and his brother Andre Silva.

“Everything points to the blowout of a tyre while it (the vehicle) was overtaking,” the Civil Guard said in a statement.

The central government’s representative in Zamora, Angel Blanco, told reporters the car “was burned out, and they died inside”.

In a touching tribute, Liverpool announced that Jota’s number 20 shirt will be immortalised for the role he played in the club’s 20th Premier League title campaign.

The statement partly reads, “What cruelly has proved to be his final flourish in football saw Jota become a Premier League champion and a UEFA Nations League winner.

“The No.20 will be rightly immortalised for his contributions as part of Liverpool’s 2024-25 title-winners – the club’s 20th – with his trademark shimmy and strike in front of the Kop to seal victory in April’s Merseyside derby a poignant last goal of his life.”

Jota joined Liverpool from another Premier League side, Wolves, in 2020 and featured 182 times for the Merseyside team, scoring 65 times.