"Keep your eyes on the road" - Diogo Jota's wife reveals text message she sent to late Liverpool star before tragic death in car crash

Rute Cardoso has revealed the last exchange of messages she had with her husband Diogo Jota before the Liverpool forward and his brother André Silva were killed in a car crash in Spain.

In extracts from a new biography, Diogo Jota: Forever In Our Hearts, published by the Liverpool Echo, Cardoso recalled the messages she sent shortly after the brothers set off from her sister's house on the night of 2 July 2025.

They were heading for Santander to hand back a hired Lamborghini before taking a ferry to England for pre-season. Cardoso revealed in the book:

“A few minutes after they'd left, I sent Diogo a message saying, ‘Safe journey’. He replied with an emoji, and I told him to keep his eyes on the road.”

Later that night, at about 22:40, the wedding photographer sent Cardoso footage of a surprise dance she and her bridesmaids had performed at the reception. She forwarded it to a group chat and then messaged her husband:

“When you stop, I've got a video to show you.”

The message was delivered but never read. When the brothers did not reach their hotel in Benavente, Cardoso rang the hotel, a hospital and local police, then her uncle Vítor, a lorry driver with contacts among Spain's traffic police.

On the call she heard him say, 'The bodies are being taken away.' A Spanish officer later confirmed her husband's death. Cardoso recalled the moment:

“I just kept saying to my friend Catarina: ‘This is a joke, it can't be true. There's no way in the world this can be true!’”

The couple married in Porto on 22 June 2025, 11 days before the crash. Jota, 28, was travelling by road because doctors had advised him not to fly after lung surgery. His brother André, a footballer with Penafiel, was 25.

What were the findings from the investigation into ex-Liverpool star Diogo Jota's car crash?

The High Court of Justice of Castilla y León found that a tyre burst during an overtaking manoeuvre caused the crash on the A-52 near Cernadilla, in Zamora province.

There were no grounds for criminal proceedings, as reported by The Athletic in April 2026. In the same book, Cardoso also revealed how Diogo Jota was never into fancy cars or other expensive things. The former Liverpool star, who won the Premier League, FA Cup and the Carabao Cup (twice), is survived by three kids and his wife Cardoso.