Ibrahima Konate has thanked France team-mates Kylian Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele for honouring Diogo Jota after the Liverpool forward's death
Ousmane Dembele and Kylian Mbappe
(Image: Getty)
Ibrahima Konate has thanked his France team-mates Kylian Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele after both dedicated goals to Diogo Jota in the FIFA Club World Cup. Jota, the Liverpool forward, passed away in the early hours of Thursday morning (July 3) when he was killed in a car crash along with his brother, Andre Silva.
The pair had been driving across Spain in order to catch a ferry to return to Merseyside for the start of Liverpool's pre-season only for their vehicle to veer off the road following a tyre blowout.
Jota and Silva were laid to rest in their hometown of Gondomar on Saturday (July 5) with the majority of the Reds squad, including Konate, travelling to Portugal for the pair’s funeral.
Jota’s Portugal team-mates, Ruben Neves and Joao Cancelo, also managed to fly in for the funeral, despite the fact they had been representing Al-Hilal in the first FIFA Club World Cup quarter-final on Friday (July 4) in Orlando, Florida in the United States.
While the pair were able to make it back to Portugal for the funeral, the likes of Pedro Neto and Trent Alexander-Arnold were not able to due to their own FIFA Club World Cup commitments on Saturday.
However, the pair both paid tribute to Jota as Chelsea and Real Madrid beat Palmeiras and Borussia Dortmund respectively to progress to the semi-finals.
Alexander-Arnold would set up Real Madrid’s second goal in a 3-2 win while Kylian Mbappe celebrated his match-winning goal against Dortmund by doing a 20 gesture with his fingers, in reference to Jota’s shirt number, and praying.
Meanwhile, Dembele had earlier celebrated his own goal against Bayern Munich by recreating Jota’s famous gamer goal celebration.
Konate took to social media after both goals to thank his France colleagues for honouring his Liverpool team-mate.
Posting a picture of Dembele’s goal celebration on his Instagram story, Konate tagged the forward and wrote: “My brother”, along with one clapping hands emoji, three heart emojis and two dove emojis and a tearful face emoji.
He would then do similar after Mbappe’s goal, sharing an image of the striker's celebration as he again wrote, though this time in capital letters: “My brother”.
Tagging the Real Madrid superstar, he also posted four heart emojis, a dove emoji, one clapping hands emoji and a tearful face emoji.
Konate had earlier paid his own emotional tribute to Jota on Instagram when sharing a compilation video of the pair on the social media platform.
He wrote: “Diogo... I still can’t believe it. I’m devastated. I have no words to express my feelings. Beyond the extraordinary footballer you were, there was an exceptional man, a friend, and brother! May you and André rest in peace.
“I am truly devastated by this news. This club, this family that we shared together, will never forget you! I think back to all the moments we shared and I still can’t believe it, they all seemed perfect...
“You can be sure of one thing: your family won’t walk alone. We’ll be there to help them through this devastating moment.
“I would like to address the world: today it’s Diogo and his brother. Yesterday it was someone else. Tomorrow it could be us.
“Let’s enjoy every moment that life offers us, with our families, friends, even strangers. Let’s try to live in peace and send each other love. We don’t know what tomorrow brings. I LOVE YOU, MY BROTHER.”