Real Madrid and UEFA paid tribute, Spain’s federation postponed cup matches, and no charges have been announced.
Jesús de Miguel, a 30-year-old forward for the Spanish second-division club CD Tenerife, died early Tuesday, a day after he suffered cardiac arrest in a collision with the opposing goalkeeper in the closing seconds of a match against FC Andorra. Tenerife announced that he died at 8 a.m. local time. Spanish police have opened an investigation into possible involuntary manslaughter, and prosecutors will also be involved, while the Spanish and European football authorities have paused matches and observed tributes across the continent.
The collision happened in added time on Monday in a Spanish second-division match at Tenerife’s Estadio Heliodoro Rodríguez López. De Miguel was challenging for the ball near midfield when Andorra goalkeeper Jesús Owono rushed out and struck him in the chest. De Miguel dropped to his knees, clutching his torso, and then fell onto his back. Owono was shown a straight red card for the challenge, and the match was abandoned with the score tied 2-2. After being sent off, Owono began to walk off the field but turned around and joined the other players rushing to check on De Miguel.
Medical staff treated De Miguel on the field for more than five minutes before he was taken by ambulance to the Hospital Universitario Nuestra Señora de Candelaria. Tenerife said late Monday that De Miguel had suffered cardiac arrest, that his pulse was restored in the ambulance and that he was in intensive care in serious but stable condition. In the early hours of Tuesday, the club said his condition had worsened neurologically, and it later announced his death.
“Racked with pain, with a lump in our throats and unable to believe that this is true,” the club said in a statement announcing his death. Club president Felipe Miñambres said the players and their families would likely need help to cope with the loss. Tenerife supporters left flowers outside the stadium in tribute.
Spain’s National Police said Tuesday that an investigation had been opened and that prosecutors would be involved. The High Court of Justice of the Canary Islands told the Spanish newspaper El País that any death considered non-natural requires an investigation. No charges have been announced against anyone, and an investigation into a possible involuntary manslaughter does not by itself mean that anyone will be charged. The medical cause of death has not been detailed publicly, and authorities have not said whether the blow to the chest, another medical condition or a combination of factors caused the cardiac arrest
The tributes came from across European football. UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin said he was heartbroken by De Miguel’s death and that “we have searched for words and found only silence.” UEFA said a moment of silence would be observed at all its matches this week, and teams playing in the Champions League paid tribute to De Miguel. Real Madrid’s players and coaching staff held a minute of silence during training on Tuesday, and Espanyol postponed the presentation of its new coach. Lionel Messi also paid tribute to De Miguel in a post on Instagram. Clubs across Spain posted messages of condolence.
The Spanish football federation postponed all Copa del Rey and Copa de la Reina matches scheduled on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The decision affects the cup calendar for the first-division and lower-division clubs and women’s teams alike, and it is not yet clear when the games will be rescheduled. The league had not announced on Tuesday whether Tenerife’s next league fixture would be postponed.
De Miguel was born in Madrid and began his senior career in 2015 with Leganés B, the reserve team of the Madrid-area club. He went on to play for eight teams, mostly in the lower divisions of Spanish football, before joining Tenerife in the summer of 2025. Teammates, coaches and opponents described a player who had worked his way up through the lower leagues, and Tenerife had struggled with a series of injuries and lineup changes early in the season.
Deaths of professional players during matches are rare but have shaped how the sport handles medical emergencies. Cameroon midfielder Marc-Vivien Foé died in 2003, aged 28, after collapsing during a Confederations Cup semifinal in Lyon, France, and his death prompted improvements in heart testing of players and in the treatment available to them during matches, including CPR training for club medical staff and the use of defibrillators. Spain international Antonio Puerta, 22, collapsed during a La Liga match in 2007 and died three days later. Patrick Ekeng, a 26-year-old Cameroonian midfielder, died in 2016 after collapsing without contact on the field during a match in Romania. De Miguel’s case differs in that the cardiac arrest followed a physical collision, which is why police are investigating, but the immediate medical response of treating him on the field and transferring him to a hospital followed the same emergency protocols.
Several questions remain. Authorities have not said what the medical report says about the cause of death, how long the investigation might take or whether Owono, the goalkeeper, will be questioned. The Spanish league and federation will decide how to handle Tenerife’s and Andorra’s upcoming fixtures, and how to support players and staff after such an event. For Owono, a 25-year-old who joined Andorra from Alavés, the immediate matter is the straight red card that came in the final seconds, and the longer-term one is the weight of a death that his club and opponents have described as a tragedy rather than a foul.
