Spain manager Luis de la Fuente and Real Madrid president Florentino Perez were among the many mourners paying their respects at the funeral of Jesus de Miguel on Thursday.
CD Tenerife striker De Miguel died on Tuesday morning after a collision with FC Andorra’s goalkeeper Jesus Owono in a Spanish second division match on Monday afternoon.
He was 30 years old and is survived by his wife and daughter, who was born in 2025.
De Miguel’s Tenerife team-mates also travelled for the service, which took place in the village of Navahermosa, about two hours’ drive south of Madrid.
Known as Demi to his friends, De Miguel was born in Madrid and grew up a Real Madrid fan in Fuenlabrada just south of the Spanish capital. His parents are from Navahermosa, in the province of Toledo.
“Amid the pain and emotion, I wanted to be here for the family, for his wife Maria and his daughter Carla,” De La Fuente said.
“I wanted to show them our solidarity and respect. We wanted to be here more than ever.”
Tributes to De Miguel were held at football grounds across Europe this week, including in the Champions League. In Spain, men’s and women’s cup games were postponed, and neither Tenerife nor Andorra will be playing their league games this weekend.
Tributes were paid to De Miguel before this week’s Champions League ties (Patricia De Melo Moreira / AFP via Getty Images)
A memorial event will be held for De Miguel at Tenerife’s Estadio Heliodoro Rodriguez Lopez stadium on Saturday. People began to place flowers, photos, candles and messages outside the venue on Tuesday.
Spain’s sports minister Milagros Tolon and Spanish FA president Rafael Louzan were also among the attendees in Navahermosa on Thursday, while dozens of floral wreaths were sent from clubs across the country.
“Today was a day to be here, supporting Jesus’s family and his young daughter,” Louzan said. “We wanted to show them our solidarity.
“These things can happen in football, but in some way, they should point us towards the need for prevention and protective measures.
“It’s a very difficult day. I think we acted quickly by suspending the Copa del Rey and Copa de la Reina matches. There is little more I can say. Football must stand united.”
A tragedy that united Spanish football
Just before 2pm, with the church bells sounding, a procession of around 100 people all dressed in black made their way towards the funeral home in Navahermosa, a village of about 3,000 in Spain’s rural heartland, which had unexpectedly found itself at the centre of media attention.
Among their number were De Miguel’s Tenerife team-mates, who had travelled to his family’s hometown to pay their respects after the player tragically died following a collision during Monday’s match against Andorra.
There were so many people and so many bouquets of flowers inside the small building that there simply wasn’t room for everyone.
The crowds spilled out into the surrounding area, where people of all ages prayed, cried or tried to comfort one another with embraces and hushed conversations.
De Miguel’s funeral took place in Navahermosa (Guillermo Rai, The Athletic)
The profoundly moving moment brought together, within just a few metres, Spain manager De la Fuente, Real Madrid president Perez, other club executives, coaches, players and former professionals.
Hundreds of people from across Spanish football — a sport so often making headlines for its rivalries and conflicts — came together this time to say goodbye to one of their own.
For once, despite the tragedy, everything seemed to be at peace.
There was a sense of unity that offered strength to De Miguel’s parents, his wife and his one-year-old daughter, who was too young to understand what was happening.
But one day, she will surely come to understand what her father meant to so many people.
What happened to De Miguel?
The score was 2-2 during Monday’s Segunda Division fixture at Tenerife’s home ground when a clearance put De Miguel through on goal. Owono rushed out and collided with him just inside the Andorra half.
Owono, 25, was shown a straight red card for the foul, in the 96th minute. Referee Manuel Angel Perez Hernandez wrote in his match report that Owono, an Equatorial Guinea international, had made “a reckless challenge with his leg raised, using excessive force against an opponent whilst the ball was in play”.
De Miguel received treatment from medical staff on the pitch before being carried off on a stretcher and taken to hospital in an ambulance that was outside the stadium. The match was abandoned.
Tenerife said later on Monday that De Miguel was in a “serious but stable” condition in the intensive care unit at the University Hospital of Nuestra Senora de Candelaria, on the outskirts of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. In an update at 3.56am local time on Tuesday morning, the club said that his condition had deteriorated.
Later on Tuesday morning, Tenerife, alongside the Spanish Footballers’ Association, announced that De Miguel had died in the hospital at 8am local time.
Spanish police opened an investigation into De Miguel’s death. Sources at the High Court of Justice of the Canary Islands — of which Tenerife is one — said that any death without a clear natural cause requires that to happen. Santa Cruz de Tenerife’s chief prosecutor Jose Luis Sanchez-Jauregui told news agency EFE it was very unlikely that any criminal case would follow.
Meanwhile, the Spanish FA’s disciplinary committee is set to decide on the length of suspension Owono will serve.
