Hundreds of people, including Spanish football figures such as Real Madrid president Florentino Perez and coach Luis de la Fuente, attended the funeral of Tenerife striker Jesus de Miguel in Navahermosa, his family's village, on Thursday.
Spanish football united in pain
Many dressed in black, some 400 people welcomed in front of the church where a mass was to take place the funeral procession which traveled from the funeral homes through the streets of the town located southwest of Madrid, noted an AFP photographer. His Tenerife club partners, all in dark suits, then carried his coffin into the religious building.
In front of the funeral home, the family of the 30-year-old player who died this Tuesday after a shock suffered the day before during a Spanish second division match had previously expressed thanks for “all the words, all the marks of affection, support and respect” received since the tragedy, via a press release read by the player's agent, according to local media.
“We do not have enough words to thank everyone who sent us a message, made a call or showed their affection,” added the family, also asking for respect for their privacy, and expressing their “need to experience this mourning in the serenity that such a situation requires.”
In Navahermosa, a village of around 2,000 inhabitants where the player's parents were born and where his grandparents live, about a hundred kilometers from the Spanish capital, all the flags have been at half-mast since the municipality's decision to decree three days of mourning this Tuesday, the day of the death of Jesus de Miguel.
The call from the players' union
The AFE, the Spanish footballers' union, also requested on Thursday the postponement of all professional meetings over the weekend, as a sign of "respect" and "humanity", after the death of the Tenerife striker, which shocked the world of football.
The players “of all categories” contacted by their union, considered “unanimously” that the next day of the various Spanish championships “should not be played”. “The footballers expressed their deep sadness at this loss and believe that the psychological and human conditions are not met to approach the competition under normal conditions,” writes the AFE.
Aware of the difficulty of achieving its request in terms of the calendar, the organization calls on Spanish football institutions to show that “people” come before “sporting and economic interests”.
Several matches have already been postponed this week, notably in the King's Cup and Queen's Cup, as well as those of Tenerife, Andorra and Castellon (De Miguel's former club) scheduled for this weekend. A tribute must be paid to him late Saturday afternoon at the Tenerife stadium.
As he watched the ball coming behind him, the 30-year-old was hit in the air by Andorra goalkeeper Jesus Owono on Monday. Nearby players immediately called emergency services for help and Jesus de Miguel was rushed to Tenerife hospital, where he was initially treated in a “stable, although serious, condition”. Victim of cardiorespiratory arrest, according to the local press, he did not survive the shock despite several hours spent in intensive care, where his condition “worsened from a neurological point of view”, according to his club.
Jesus de Miguel, a respected goalscorer in Spain's lower divisions, had only discovered the professional level in 2024, with Castellon, who he led back to the second division by scoring 16 goals in 35 matches. He was also highly appreciated in Tenerife for helping the Canary club return to Liga2 this season.
The last fatal accident on a football field dates back to last August: Portuguese midfielder Quevin Castro, aged 25, died in hospital after collapsing the day before on the field around ten minutes after the kick-off of the Portuguese D3 match between his club Real Sport Clube and Estrela da Amadora.
