Cristiano Ronaldo has been seen publicly for the first time since choosing not to attend the funeral of Diogo Jota, who tragically died in a car crash last week.
Jota, aged 28, and his younger brother André Silva, 25, lost their lives when their vehicle crashed in the early hours of Thursday morning in northern Spain.
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The devastating accident occurred just 11 days after Jota married his longtime partner, Rute Cardoso, also 28, with whom he shared three children—Dinis, four, Duarte, two, and baby Mafalda, just eight months old. ..Continue Reading
The brothers were laid to rest on Saturday afternoon at Gondomar cemetery in Portugal, with many of Jota’s national teammates, including Bernardo Silva and Rúben Neves, attending to pay their respects.
However, Ronaldo, captain of the Portuguese national team, was notably absent. Reports suggest he chose not to attend due to personal grief tied to the loss of his own father, José Diniz Aveiro, in 2005—a tragedy that still deeply affects him.
A day after the funeral, Ronaldo was photographed vacationing on a yacht in Mallorca with his partner Georgina Rodríguez, as he privately mourned Jota’s passing.
Portuguese outlet Record reported that Ronaldo believed his presence might have drawn too much media attention and detracted from the solemnity of the occasion.
Though some criticized his absence, Ronaldo’s sister, Katia Aveiro, defended him on social media, recalling the overwhelming media presence at their father’s funeral and expressing frustration at the public scrutiny her brother faced.
Taking to Instagram, she wrote: ‘When my father died, in addition to the pain of loss, we had to deal with a flood of cameras and curious onlookers at the cemetery and everywhere we went.
‘And attention was not what it is today in terms of access… At no time were we (the children) able to leave the chapel; it was only possible at the time of the burial, such was the commotion.
‘At the funeral, there were presidents, coaches of the national team at the time, such as Luís Filipe Scolari, etc. I don’t remember seeing any of them. And they certainly greeted me. The pain blinded me.
‘About pain/family and real support… You will never know what it means until you go through it. If someone sends me a message criticising anything my brother does, I will block it (completely ignore it), that is, they will only do it once.
‘It’s getting tiring. The fanaticism. The criticism for nothing, I repeat nothing… Sick society… We all have families.
‘It is absurdly shameful to watch TV channels/commentators/social networks emphasising an absence (wise) rather than respectfully honouring the pain of a mutilated family destroyed by the loss of two brothers. I am even ashamed to watch. Regrettable.
‘And so the world goes… Society and opinion. Today they are worthless. They themselves have become bottomless pits. I feel sorry… And war is also like that. Believe me. Human evil is also a war. And every day we have to fight against it. And so it goes.’
Ronaldo shared the pitch with Jota as recently as June 8, when he captained Portugal to the Nations League trophy as they Spain on penalties – a game which Jota came off the bench in.
The former Real Madrid star was among the first players to take to social media after the Liverpool striker’s passing, sharing the disbelief felt by the footballing world in a heartfelt post.
‘It doesn’t make sense. We were just together in the national team, and you had just gotten married,’ wrote Ronaldo.
‘To your family, your wife and your children, I send my condolences and wish them all the strength in the world.
‘I know you will always be with them. Rest in peace, Diogo and Andre. We will all miss you.’
