Cristiano Ronaldo has defended his decision not to attend the funeral of Diogo Jota, the former Liverpool and Portugal forward who tragically died in a car accident in July. Jota, along with his brother Andre Silva, was en route to the port city of Santander to catch a ferry back to the UK when their Lamborghini spun off the road and burst into flames near Zamora, Spain, following a tyre blowout while overtaking another vehicle.
Just days after the tragic loss of Jota and Silva, a funeral was held in their hometown of Gondomar, Portugal. Many of their former team-mates were present, but one notable name was missing – Ronaldo, who had played alongside Jota in the Portugal national team for six years, chose not to attend. Ronaldo has now explained his absence from the funeral.
In an interview with Piers Morgan, he stated: “People criticised me a lot, I don’t care about that because when you feel free you don’t have to worry about what the people say. But one of the things I don’t do is, after my father died I have never been to a cemetery again.
“Second, and you know my reputation, wherever I go it’s a circus. I didn’t go also because if I go the attention goes to me and I don’t want this kind of attention.
“I saw, and I’m not criticising it, when you go into a sensitive moment, you do interviews to speak about him and speak about football. Come on guys what is this.
“This shows how secret life is sometimes, I am not part of that. If you want to be part of this world, good luck but I am going to be on the other side. People can continue to criticise me, but I felt good with my decision.”
Despite Ronaldo’s absence from Jota’s funeral, he offered a heartfelt tribute to the former Liverpool star and recounted the devastating moment he learnt of his passing.
“I was with Geo (Georgina Rodriguez) alone,” the 40-year-old Ronaldo said. “I was in our period of rest in the gym in the morning. I didn’t believe it when they sent me the messages. I cried a lot, Geo can confirm that.
“It was a difficult moment for the country, for the family, for friends, for team-mates. It was very sad news.”
Jota had been told not to travel by air following lung surgery and had arranged to return to England by sea with his brother. The pair were travelling to Santander, stopping overnight in Benavente, before catching a ferry to Portsmouth.
“The surgery he had had was lung surgery and he had been advised against flying following this,” CNN Portugal’s Rui Laura explained. “He was on his way to the northern Spanish port city of Santander to cross the ferry and reach the UK that way and carry on with the car once he reached Britain. He was on his way to Liverpool with his brother.”