The president of the Portuguese FA has come to the defence of Cristiano Ronaldo after the national team captain received backlash for not attending Diogo Jota’s funeral.
The footballing world was left a month ago when news broke that Jota and his brother Andre Silva had been killed in a car crash in northern Spain.
The tragic accident came just 11 days after Jota had married childhood sweetheart Rute Cardoso, also 28, who is the mother of his two sons Dinis, four, and Duarte, two as well as his baby daughter Mafalda, who is just eight months old.
Ronaldo was Jota’s Portugal national team captain and many were surprised that he was not present at the funeral which took place just days later in Gondomar.
Some were more than surprised, with Ronaldo facing criticism online for his absence after Portugal stars such as Bruno Fernandes, Ruben Dias and Bernardo Silva made appearances.
The Al-Nassr star is said to have not made the journey as he did not wish for his presence to overshadow the importance of people paying their respects to Jota and his brother.
Cristiano Ronaldo (left) did not attend the funeral of Portugal team-mate Diogo Jota (right)
Portuguese FA chief Pedro Proenca (left) has come to the defence of the national team captain
And Pedro Proenca, president of the Portuguese Football Federation, has hit back at the criticism.
‘It’s incredibly unfair to say that Cristiano, in some way, played a more detached role in this,’ he said.
‘From the very beginning, the captain was with us and was one of the people who most closely connected with the national team family, with Jota’s own blood family.
‘And I say it again: what they said about our captain is unfair. Cristiano Ronaldo, he was one of the people who felt it the most, especially because he was a true team-mate of Jota .
His physical absence means nothing more than that, because he never abandoned this family.’
