Andre Silva remembered: How Diogo Jota’s brother forged his own football path

Diogo Jota did not need to think twice.

The question was posed during an interview with ESPN’s ‘Ball Knowledge’ programme in January, with the Liverpool striker being asked which players he most enjoyed watching and why.

“My brother,” Jota said, with a laugh. “My brother plays in Penafiel, the second division in Portugal. He is by far the one I most enjoyed.”

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That brother was Andre Filipe Teixeira da Silva, Diogo’s younger sibling by three years. It was Andre that Diogo most loved watching when he wasn’t starring for Liverpool and Portugal, and it was Andre who was by his side when the car they were driving in through north-west Spain crashed in the small hours of Thursday morning, killing them both. Their funeral will take place in their home city of Gondomar today.

The shockwave caused by the tragedy is still rippling through the football world.

Diogo — whose full name was Diogo Jose Teixeira da Silva — was recently married and he leaves behind three young children. His career in professional football was supremely successful: a winner of three major trophies in England with Liverpool, including last season’s Premier League title, a full Portugal international and with 136 goals at senior club level.

Diogo’s name might be the more familiar, but Andre’s passing will leave an emotional scar that runs just as deep. He was also carving his own path in football and was a regular starter for Penafiel, a club based in the city of the same name, around 25 miles east of Porto in northern Portugal. But that journey, no doubt inspired by the success of his older brother, was cut tragically short.

Andre Silva playing for Penafiel in 2024 (Gualter Fatia/Getty Images)

There are many parallels with Diogo’s story. Andre also grew up as a football obsessive in Gondomar, a small municipality to the east of Porto in northern Portugal, with his parents Joaquim Silva and Isabel Silva.

People in Gondomar remember the two boys playing football in the street. “I lived right across the street, and I would hear ‘boom, boom, boom’ — it was him and his brother,” neighbour Joao Ferreira told Portuguese news outlet JN. “One would play goalkeeper, at the entrance to a garage, and the other would kick the ball.”

Another local, Ventura Pereira, recalls the pair “breaking down gates” playing football and that his wife, “who knows nothing about football”, knew both were going to be special players.

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Andre started out playing for the local team, again just like Diogo, before leaving, aged 11, to join the youth setup at Porto. He was a tricky winger with fast feet and an infectious energy that allowed him to play across the front line. On Thursday, the club posted pictures on their social media accounts of a proud young Andre holding an award during his time at the club.

Andre clearly had talent, spending time on the books at Pacos de Ferreira, Famalicao and Boavista during his teenage years, all first-division sides at the time. He returned to Gondomar aged 21 to take his first steps in senior football, before his big break: a move to Penafiel in July 2023, seeing him jump two divisions to the Portuguese second tier.

Things could not have started much better for Andre in professional football, winning a penalty for his new side just 25 minutes into his debut against Leixoes.

With an incredible piece of skill, he flicked the ball through the legs of Ricardo Teixeira as he looked to control a long throw into the box — the ball not touching the ground before it bounced off Andre’s heel — before wriggling goal-side of the defender and falling to the ground after a bump to the hips.

Just over half an hour later, he had scored his first-ever goal at this level of football, sliding in at the back post to toe-poke home a low, driven cross. He celebrated incredulously, clearly overcome with emotion, pointing to the name on his back before disappearing into a huddle of team-mates.

It was the reaction of a man — then only 23 — who had taken his opportunity, the adrenaline pumping as he felt his career opening up in front of him.

Andre’s quiet determination would characterise the rest of his time at the club, his tenacity and head-down approach seeing him quickly establish himself as a player that manager Helder Cristovao could rely on. He featured in all but two of Penafiel’s games this season, with the club dreaming of an unlikely promotion to the top tier in second place as recently as March before a downturn in form left them in 11th.

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He would score six more goals for Penafiel — a powerful close-range strike against Nacional, a sharp run in behind and near-post finish against Portimonense, and even a brave header against UD Leiria — all celebrated with the same sense of unbridled joy.

“Andre brought different things to our game, a lot of speed,” Cristovao told Sport TV, “but more than the footballer, we have to talk about the person, a very well-rounded kid. He just finished his management course at university — he never stopped studying, he always continued to study and work. He took business because he had started a business with his brother.”

Another of Andre’s clubs, Pacos de Ferreira, remarked upon his “humility, responsibility and immense dedication”, his unassuming nature a recurring theme for those who had spent time with him.

His brother, Diogo, had made it in football, and Andre was well on his way to forging a fine career closer to home, but both were grounded, hard-working players who were grateful for the opportunities that their talent had given them.

Cristovao says it best with a single word, ‘menino’ — ‘kid’ — and far too much time was taken away from Andre.

Portuguese football will mourn the player it has lost, and wonder about what he may yet have achieved, but the greatest tragedy revolves around a family that has seen two cherished brothers ripped away so cruelly.

(Top photo: Gualter Fatia/Getty Images)

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