- By Namrata Vijay
- Sat, 12 Jul 2025 02:57 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
IND vs ENG 3rd Test: India's star fast bowler Mohammed Siraj has reckoned that he is a Portugal fan when it comes to international football owing to Cristiano Ronaldo and after hearing about the untimely death of Portugal and Liverpool star footballer Diego Jota during an accident last month, he chose to pay a tribute to him. Jota, who has three children, had recently married his long-time girlfriend Rute Cardoso just 11 days before the accident and then died along with his brother as the Lamborghini in which they were riding got off the road and went up in flames in North Spain.
Arne Slot, who is the manager of Liverpool and a lot of other players like captain Virgil van Dijk attended Jota's funeral last week.
“When we were coming for the last match (Edgbaston Test), we got to know that Diago Jota died in an accident. I am a Portugal fan because CR7 plays for them. I felt emotional, and I wanted to pay him a tribute in the last match itself," Siraj was heard saying in the video shared by the BCCI on its official Instagram account.
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“Life is very unpredictable. Who are we fighting for? What are we even working for? We don’t know about tomorrow; there is no guarantee of life. I was shocked to know about his death, that too in a car accident," he added.
“So when I got the wicket today, I decided to pay tribute to Jota and his jersey No. 20. I spoke to Kuldeep before the game and told him that I want to pay tribute to him," he said.
The investigation is analyzing the marks which were left by the vehicle's wheels as all the evidence points towards the excessive speed above the road's speed limit, as per the Civil guard.
According to Portuguese and UK media, Jota was going towards the North Spanish port of Santander in order to ride in a ferry going to England so as to join Liverpool's pre-season training camp and thus tried to avoid taking the flight due to medical reasons as he had recently undergone a lung operation.
Post playing well for teams like Atletico Madrid, Porto, and Wolverhampton Wanderers, he became the fan's favorite while playing for Liverpool in the Premier League five years ago.