The Portugal national football team will face Croatia in Toronto on Thursday evening, dedicating the World Cup round of 32 match to late forward Diogo Jota on the first anniversary of his death.
Jota and his brother Andre Silva died in a car accident in Spain on July 3, 2025, just 11 days after his wedding to Rute Cardoso.
Head coach Roberto Martinez has named Jota as an honorary 27th squad member for the tournament, with players wearing commemorative wristbands provided by Prime Minister Luis Montenegro.
Team's Emotional Connection
Midfielder Ruben Neves, who wears Jota's number 21 shirt and has a tattoo in his honor, revealed the team maintains contact through an archived WhatsApp group.
"Few people know this.
We have a WhatsApp group with Rute and Diogo, and it's still there, and we continue to talk there," Neves said.
"Whenever something special happens, I have the conversations archived on my WhatsApp so I can continue to send him messages," he added.
Neves, who played for Al Hilal at the Club World Cup before assisting with Jota's coffin at the funeral in Gondomar on July 5, 2025, described the day after the news as the most difficult of his life.
"I and the entire national team will do everything we can to keep Diogo here with us, on our team," Neves said.
"The most important aspect for me to be able to play was wanting to play for Diogo first."
Inspiration for World Cup Campaign
Martinez emphasized that Jota's memory serves as a primary inspiration for the squad during their North American campaign.
"Diogo is our sun and our light. We want to win the World Cup for him," Martinez said.
Following a scoreless draw against Colombia in the group stage, Martinez reiterated: "I think we need to honor Diogo Jota.
I think it's a moment to cherish that everything we started in this team started with him. We won the Nations League with him.
He's probably the sign and the light of the biggest stimulation that we have. We want to win the World Cup for him."
Jota scored 14 goals in 49 appearances for Portugal and celebrated a Nations League victory over Spain shortly before his passing.
Midfielder Vitinha highlighted the significance of the upcoming anniversary ahead of the knockout match.
"The story of the wristband is, when we went to meet with the prime minister, he offered us this wristband," Vitinha said.
"They made sure that it was a wristband that we could wear on the pitch.
It has all the specifics for us to be able to enter the pitch with it, with the name of all the players plus the special name of Diogo Jota."
Vitinha confirmed the squad's collective focus during a pre-match press conference in Canada.
"Like I said before, we have plenty of motivation to win this game and reach the next round.
Moreover, there is that factor, that special day (Jota's death anniversary). We have all the motivation and much more to want to win tomorrow.
For us. For our families.
For Diogo Jota. For the whole country.
For Portugal. So we are going to give everything we have to win against Croatia tomorrow," Vitinha said.
Biography and Tributes
Journalist Jose Manuel Delgado authored an official biography titled "Diogo Jota, Never Again Is Too Long" after interviewing numerous family members and associates.
"It's not a book about football, it's a book about people," Delgado said.
"I spoke to 80 or 90 people and all of them wanted to speak, even though it was hurtful.
It gave them pain to talk about Diogo, but everyone felt they owed it to him to speak so that his memory could be kept in the book."
The biography project involved extensive coordination with Jota's widow to preserve his memory for his three children.
"None of the interviews were easy but people wanted to help. I spoke with Rute about the importance the book would have for his three children.
We decided it would be a very good way for them to know their father.
It was this thought that made his family suffer through dozens of hours of interviews.
It was not easy but it was not meant to be easy," Delgado said.
Former Liverpool teammates also expressed the deep psychological impact of the tragedy on their subsequent season.
"We can't hide away from it, and it is not an excuse, but what we went through in the summer, no team will ever go through; no member of staff will go through," defender Andy Robertson said.
"I hope they never go through it because the devastation we went through, football didn't matter.
We didn't care about football for weeks; none of us wanted to train. That was the reality."
Robertson described how the grief affected the daily environment at the Premier League club.
"You were getting treatment from physios, and physios didn't want to treat you. Do you know what I mean?
That is the reality of it.
As footballers, we then of course have a duty; we have to move on, we have to keep going and we managed that," Robertson said.
Local business owners in Toronto noted that fans have traveled in large numbers to support the team while wearing Jota's name.
"Diogo was a player deeply loved by the Portuguese people," business owner Miguel de Silva said.
"I think what he brings to the Portuguese players will be something special. Just one more reason for them to win the match [against Croatia]."
The winner of the match between Portugal and Croatia will advance to face either Spain or Austria in the round of 16.
