Jesús de Miguel Leaves Behind a Wife and One-Year-Old Daughter After Fatal On-Pitch Collision
Jesús de Miguel, a 30-year-old forward for CD Tenerife, died early Tuesday, about a day after a collision with an opposing goalkeeper left him in cardiac arrest during a Spanish second-division match, the club announced.
Tenerife said he died at 8 a.m. local time, in a statement that opened with the words “Broken with pain, with a lump in our throat.” The club named him in full as Jesús de Miguel Alameda.
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The collision came on Monday night at Estadio Heliodoro Rodríguez López in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, in a match between Tenerife and FC Andorra that was tied at 2-2.
De Miguel had come on as a substitute in the 59th minute with Tenerife leading by two goals, but Andorra scored in the 80th and 87th minutes to draw level. In the seventh minute of stoppage time, the ball was cleared from Tenerife’s penalty area and bounced toward midfield, where De Miguel ran onto it.
Andorra goalkeeper Jesús Lázaro Ferrer Owono Ngua Akeng, known as Jesús Owono, charged far out of his area to meet it, jumped with his knee forward and struck De Miguel in the chest. De Miguel fell to the grass and did not move.
Players from both teams signalled urgently for medical staff, and several were in tears as the doctors worked on him. The referee showed Owono a straight red card for a high, forceful challenge made while the ball was in play.
Owono then turned back and joined the players gathered around his fallen opponent. The match was called off and officially recorded as suspended in the 108th minute.
De Miguel suffered a cardiac arrest and was revived by medical teams in the ambulance that carried him to the Hospital Universitario Nuestra Señora de Candelaria in Santa Cruz. He was admitted to the intensive care unit. Late Monday, Tenerife said he was stable despite the severity of his condition.
Early Tuesday, the club said his neurological state had worsened and promised more information within hours. His death was confirmed shortly afterwards.
Spanish police have opened an investigation into the circumstances under judicial supervision, examining possible involuntary manslaughter. Owono had not commented publicly by Tuesday afternoon.
Tributes arrived within hours. FC Andorra sent its sincere condolences to De Miguel’s family, teammates and Tenerife, and Gerard Piqué, the club’s president, also voiced his sorrow on social media.
Aleksander Ceferin, president of UEFA, said he was heartbroken, and Javier Tebas, president of LaLiga, said he was deeply saddened. FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atlético Madrid and Sevilla FC all sent condolences, and Real Madrid held a minute of silence at its morning training session.
CD Castellón, De Miguel’s former club, said he had worn its shirt with pride and called him by his nickname, “Demi.” The broadcaster Manolo Lama wrote that he could not believe the news.
The Royal Spanish Football Federation suspended all activity scheduled for Tuesday as a mark of respect. The decision postponed the first round of the Copa del Rey and the third round of the Copa de la Reina, and it also cancelled the official presentation for the Under-21 national team’s match against Japan in Almendralejo. The federation said it would announce new dates and kickoff times later.
RCD Espanyol moved the presentation of its new head coach, Eder Sarabia, to Wednesday.
De Miguel was born in Madrid on Sept. 21, 1996, and began his senior career in 2015 with Leganés B. He went on to play for eight other clubs in Spain, including Unionistas de Salamanca, where he scored 12 goals in the 2021-22 season.
At Castellón he scored 16 goals and helped the club earn promotion to the second division in 2023-24. He joined Tenerife in the summer of 2025 on a three-year contract and scored 11 goals in his first season there.
His wife, María de Miguel, was in the stands at the match with the couple’s one-year-old daughter. Tenerife asked for the family’s privacy and thanked supporters for their messages.
Owono, 25 years old, was born in Bata, Equatorial Guinea, and moved to Spain as a child. He came through the youth ranks at Real Sociedad and Deportivo Alavés, made his top-flight debut with Alavés, and has played 44 times for the Equatorial Guinea national team. He joined Andorra from Alavés this season.
