Chelsea will donate a share of the Club World Cup bonuses being paid to their players to the family of Diogo Jota and Andre Silva, the club have confirmed.
The Blues were crowned world champions last month in the United States after defeating Paris Saint-Germain 3-0 in the final in New Jersey. That triumph earned them an estimated £84.4million in prize money overall.
Around £11.4m has been allocated to go to Cole Palmer and Co, worth close to £400,000 per player as the kitty will be split equally between all those who represented Enzo Maresca’s side in the States.
The club and the squad have also agreed together that they should send an equal share to the Jota and Silva family. The Liverpool attacker and his brother passed away in a car accident on July 3, midway through the Club World Cup.
That tragedy hit the Chelsea team hard, including Pedro Neto, his former Wolves and Portugal team-mate. Maresca gave Neto the choice during the tournament as to whether he wanted to continue playing. He did so and helped the team to victory while dedicating his participation to Jota, along with a number of other players who used their goal celebrations to pay tribute to the Portuguese forward.
Liverpool announced last month that they were permanently retiring the No 20 shirt at all levels of the club in memory of Jota.
Chelsea are set to donate part of their bonus pot for winning the Club World Cup to the families of Diogo Jota and Andre Silva
Chelsea were the inaugural winners of the newly-expanded Club World Cup
The Chelsea players will receive around £368,000 each, with an equal payment to be made to Jota and Silva’s families
Chelsea’s Pedro Neto was team-mates with Jota for both Portugal and Wolves
Chelsea’s gesture received much praise from fans of various clubs.
Mark Goldbridge, for instance, wrote: ‘Absolute class by Chelsea players to donate such a large amount of money to Jota’s family.’
A Liverpool supporter wrote: ‘The gesture that Chelsea has showed for Diogo Jota is exceptional’.
In addition, another Liverpool fan wrote: ‘That was class Chelsea! Lovely gesture towards Andre and Jota’s family.
‘Football should unite not divide’.
A Chelsea fan also commented, writing: ‘My club, classy as always’.
Premier League clubs will pay tribute to Jota and Andre Silva on the opening weekend of the season.
A moment of silence will be held at all games, while players will wear black armbands and tributes will also be shown on screens at grounds.
Premier League clubs will pay tribute to Jota during the opening weekend of the season
Across his spells with Wolves and Liverpool, Jota made 190 appearances in the Premier League in total and scored 63 goals, while he provided 24 assists.
He was part of the Liverpool squad that won the league title last season.
Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk stated that togetherness between players and fans will be crucial as the club continue to mourn Jota.
‘It will be a very difficult season but we are all in this together,’ said van Dijk. ‘As a team, fans, club, it was always going to be a tough season with everything that happened with Diogo over the summer, but the only way to overcome it is togetherness and the collective.’