Football across Spain united in tributes to Jesús de Miguel after fatal on-pitch collision
This weekend across Spain, clubs and players paid tribute to Jesús de Miguel after the Tenerife striker died following a collision on the pitch five days earlier, aged 30. Matches in La Liga and the second division featured shared tributes, moments of silence and teams wearing shirts bearing his name and No 9.
Before Osasuna’s match on Saturday evening, Ante Budimir addressed his teammates ahead of what would have been his 199th appearance and told them why the occasion mattered. “This is very important,” Budimir began. “We don’t have this shirt today for the sake of it. He was not chosen, and nor are we. It could have happened to anyone, anyone. Let us go knowing that we’re grateful to be on the pitch: playing, watching, warming up, sitting on the bench, whatever it may be. Boys, we were not chosen: not us, not him. Let us go, gratefully. Without thought. We have a grand day before us.” Osasuna and visiting Athletic Club emerged wearing white shirts with a No 9 on the back, a black ribbon and De Miguel’s name; Tenerife’s squad walked out at the Heliodoro Rodríguez López in Santa Cruz in black suits and had not been scheduled to play that weekend.
Two days earlier Tenerife had been in Navahermosa, La Mancha, carrying the coffin of De Miguel, whose family are from the village, and the club’s captain Enric Gallego addressed the crowd. “We’ve seen how fragile life is,” Gallego said, adding: “We think of the journeys, the wins, the losses, and hold on to those moments that seemed normal, but that now … a few days ago we shared that with you. To talk of you in the past tense is unfair. None of us are prepared to live what we’re living through.”
The players’ union in which De Miguel had a role asked for the competition to stop and requested a judge intervene when the league did not suspend fixtures; the only matches postponed were those involving Tenerife, Andorra — whose goalkeeper Jesús Owono had collided with De Miguel — and Castellón, whom De Miguel had helped reach the second division: "delivering them to segunda for the first time in 16 years and himself for the first time at all, aged 27."
Sevilla head coach Luis García said on the eve of the weekend he believed the league should wait. His midfielder Giorgi Kochorashvili missed training after asking to attend the funeral, and García replied: “we are humans above all else.” García also warned against piling blame on Owono — “let’s not make two victims, we have had enough; he is in hell, for sure” — and asked rhetorically: “If there’s a play that’s similar … what do I say to my goalkeeper? “We need time,” García had said. “We need to reflect.” José Mourinho, ahead of Real Madrid’s trip to Valencia, said: “We can’t ask him what he would have wanted,” and Madrid went on to win 3-0 while Tenerife’s flag flew at half-mast at Mestalla.
At games across the first and second divisions the same rituals were repeated: teams came out together wearing the white shirts with De Miguel’s name, flowers were laid on the spot inside the centre circle where he fell, and there was a minute’s silence with players and officials gathered around a wreath. Matches paused again in or around the ninth minute to show a video of his best moments; stadium screens displayed his image and television broadcasts carried a QR code linking to a crowdfunding campaign for his family set up by Fran Sol. In Cádiz-Oviedo referee Marta Huerta de Aza was seen in tears; at Sevilla the crowd offered applause in the 16th minute and at Espanyol there was applause in the 21st minute as former teammates and friends struggled visibly.
Timing and reactions varied. At the Metropolitano, after Giuliano Simeone’s goal, referee Javier Alberola Rojas allowed play to continue for a short period before selecting a moment to stop the game, with Diego Simeone helping to quiet the stands. In Pamplona Alejandro Catena scored a late equaliser in a 1-1 draw with Athletic and raised an Osasuna shirt bearing De Miguel’s name and number; Osasuna coach Jagoba Arrasate admitted he had been swept up by the emotion of the weekend and said the calmness he had found was soon abandoned.
Tenerife’s public tribute at the Heliodoro was attended early and the stadium was filled except for gates eight and nine; flowers and candles surrounded De Miguel’s shirt on the turf, lilies lay to one side and a wreath occupied the bench. A giant shirt covered one end where a stage and lectern stood beneath a cross, staff and players wore No 9 badges on their lapels and supporters attended in Tenerife shirts alongside visitors in Las Palmas yellow, including that club’s president and captain Kirian. “This is the Canaries I want,” said Tenerife’s majority shareholder, Rayco García; the archbishop Eloy Alberto Santiago led a mass, the club’s president and majority shareholder spoke and announced the club would not leave María, De Miguel’s widow, alone and would adopt Carla, his 14-month-old daughter, supporting her economically until she is 18. Gallego addressed the family directly: “I hope one day you can look back and see who your dad was, be proud of him, not just for the footballer he was but the person: for his humility, his goodness.”
Tenerife’s players departed the stadium after the tribute. They have training on Monday and next week they play.