"Your departure has hit us all in a way that is difficult to explain." This is how Enric Gallego, captain of Tenerife, expressed himself at the farewell to his friend Jesús De Miguel. His teammates from the island team could barely contain their tears in the tribute paid to him at the Heliodoro Rodríguez López, the place where Jesus lost his life. The Canary Islands squad will have to return there this Sunday at two in the afternoon against Ceuta. Less than two weeks after what happened with the Madrid striker.
"It is a match with a lot of emotional charge," David Llopis, sports psychologist, tells EL MUNDO and adds that "a death of this type has a very great impact that goes beyond sports." “It is hard to compete again so soon,” says her counterpart María Blanco, from Train Your Mind, because for the professional it is important that soccer players do not think that “they are superheroes” and she believes that they have to try, as much as possible, to refocus their emotions towards the game. A match where Tenerife will give the bottom team one more step towards their recovery and where it recommends that they act "like machines", doing what was planned in training without thinking too much.
The first step came this past Monday when the squad returned to training after the tragic event. He did it accompanied by several psychologists, among whom was Carmen Linares, who noted about his work: "We are here to give a little light so that the path is not difficult for the players, but they have to do it." Because, for mental health professionals, this return to daily life is among the hardest moments for "returning to your daily life and not finding your partner in your usual place," admits Blanco.
This specialist in sports psychology believes that the experts who can best help a squad like that of the Canary Islands team are those specific to duel. José González is and he is also a trainer in it. "In a locker room, giving space to pain can be as concrete as sitting next to a teammate without looking for the perfect phrase," he points out about this management of an "extraordinary" loss and that "no team is prepared to face it," according to Llopis.
Tenerife has returned to the Second Division this season after spending a year in the First RFEF. The team is in the middle of the table with three wins, three losses and six draws, the last one, precisely, in the duel against Andorra where the unfortunate play occurred. "There is no magic recipe for how to overcome something so traumatic," explains Blanco about a moment that will have 50 different solutions: from the footballer who wants to train the next day, to the one who does not have the strength to tie a boot. "Even the same player can feel differently from one training session to another," González adds.
"Constant support," recommend the experts consulted by this newspaper, support that initially focuses on the group and is later more individualized. A group, by the way, which should include all the club employees who treated Jesús, not just his teammates or the coaching staff, who psychologists also say will play a crucial role in his recovery. And they highlight the importance of the "union" of the entire team to face the duel as a whole.
The pain from the play that occurred in the 97th minute of the match, probably the last of that fateful Tenerife-Andorra match, is not exclusive to the Canary Islands team, although "it will always be greater because it is the one that has lost a teammate," says Blanco. "Pain, sadness, fear, helplessness... are emotions that are going to appear in these locker rooms and there will be players who have an easier time talking about it and crying about it than others," says Llopis.
Because there is another part in this story that Jorge Valdano defined perfectly. «Let's not look for culprits. For so much pain, one victim is enough. Jesús Owono retired, expelled from the Heliodoro with cries of "murderer, murderer." Psychologists agree that the media impact of what happened makes the emotions that the Andorra goalkeeper may feel even more difficult. «It is going to generate very high hatred and very difficult to manage. The context in our society is impossible because it is not helping you and it is not going to help you," says the Train Your Mind psychologist and adds, "guilt management is going to have to be a daily and time-consuming job."
To such an extent that abandoning professional practice, what the young Guinean has been pursuing since he left his country of origin with his mother at the age of 8, is seen as a solution. "Avoidance is a strategy," says María Blanco, although all psychologists affirm that in these moments of pain "you cannot decide." "The important thing is that you can choose with a margin, without feeling obliged to prove anything," explains González.
Relive the duel
No one will ever be able to return Jesús de Miguel, nor will anyone be able to erase the terrible scene that went around the world and that has shown footballers the fragility of life. "It can generate certain emotions of fear or blockage," Blanco describes in the players, and José González asks that the images not be repeated constantly because they are "especially difficult for those who experienced what happened and for the family." "When talking about Jesús de Miguel, his career deserves space, what he contributed to the team and the person who went beyond that play," he points out.
