The football world was left in mourning once again following the heartbreaking death of Liverpool forward Diogo Jota, whose life was cut short at the age of 28 in a car crash in Spain.
Jota was traveling near the city of Zamora when the fatal accident occurred, claiming not only his life but also that of his younger brother, Andre Silva, a fellow footballer.
News of the accident sent shock waves across the global sporting community, immediately evoking memories of other players whose careers and lives ended far from the stadiums they once graced.
From Türkiye to South America, Europe to Africa, the road has too often proven to be the cruelest opponent footballers have faced.
In Türkiye, the tragedy of Diogo Jota echoes the loss of Metin Oktay, a legend of Galatasaray and Turkish football.
Oktay, nicknamed the Crownless King, died in September 1991 following a rollover crash near the exit of the Bosporus Bridge in Istanbul.
Rushed to the hospital, he succumbed to severe injuries, including a broken jaw, fractures in his left arm, and internal bleeding caused by a ruptured spleen. He was 51.
Another painful memory lies in the passing of Ahmet Çalık, who had once worn the colors of Galatasaray and Konyaspor.
On Jan. 11, 2022, while returning to Ankara from Konya, Çalık lost control of his car on the Ankara-Niğde highway.
The vehicle veered off the road and flipped into a ditch near Gölbaşı, killing the 27-year-old defender instantly.
The news stunned Turkish football, robbing it of a promising player who had risen through the ranks at Gençlerbirliği.
In April 2019, Alanyaspor’s Czech international Josef Sural was returning with teammates from an away match in Kayseri when their private minibus overturned.
Of the seven players on board, only Sural failed to survive.
He was rushed to the hospital but died from his injuries at the age of 28, adding another name to the sport’s growing ledger of losses.
Few incidents shook Turkish football as deeply as the Samsunspor bus crash on Jan. 20, 1989.
En route to Malatya for a league fixture, the team’s bus collided with a truck near Havza.
The impact was fatal for five members of the traveling party – players Muzaffer Badalıoğlu, Mete Adanır, Zoran Tomic, coach Nuri Asan, and the driver Asım Özkan.
Several others, including players Emin Kar and Şanver Göymen, sustained serious injuries.
In the aftermath, Samsunspor honored the fallen by adding black to their red and white team colors.
The pain returned in 1994 when the club’s young star Müjdat Gürsu was killed in another car crash while on his way to pick up a friend from the airport. He was just 22.
Another Turkish tragedy occurred in December 2001 when Doğan Seyfi Atlı, a rising talent at Denizlispor, lost control of his vehicle while driving from Aydın to Denizli.
The crash near Nazilli left him critically injured.
He died shortly after in the hospital, aged only 21.
These are just a few of the heartbreaking names from Türkiye.
The broader football world has suffered similarly devastating losses.
In Spain, the brilliant winger Jose Antonio Reyes, known for his time at Sevilla, Arsenal and Atletico Madrid, died in June 2019 in a high-speed crash near his hometown of Utrera. He was 35.
His death led to an outpouring of grief, especially from former teammates and fans who had watched his electrifying runs down the wing.
In Colombia, Freddy Rincon – a powerful midfielder who had played for Real Madrid and the national team – died in April 2022 after his car collided with a bus in the city of Cali.
The 55-year-old suffered severe head injuries and died two days later in hospital.
His death was a profound blow to a country that had long viewed him as one of its footballing pioneers.
Europe has also seen its share of road tragedies.
Gaetano Scirea, an Italian World Cup winner and Juventus legend, died in 1989 in Poland while on a scouting trip.
Diego Barisone, an Argentine center-back for Lanus, died in 2015 in a collision at just 26. Panama’s Rommel Fernandez lost his life in a crash in Spain in 1993, while England’s Laurie Cunningham, the first Black player to represent Real Madrid, died in a crash outside Madrid in 1989.
Petar Milosevski, a former goalkeeper who had stints with Trabzonspor and Malatyaspor, was killed in March 2014 when the car he was riding in collided with a minibus in North Macedonia.
He was 40.
The driver of the vehicle, North Macedonia Football Federation President Ilco Gyorgyioski, survived with injuries.
Other names add to this grim ledger: Brazil’s Everaldo and Heraldo Bezerra, Bulgaria’s Georgi Asparuhov, Spain’s Juan Gomez Gonzalez, Germany’s Lutz Eigendorf.
Each life lost left a silence in the stadiums they once lit up and a permanent scar on the heart of the game.
