Tenerife player Jesús de Miguel dies after a hard tackle from the Andorra goalkeeper

BarcelonaCD Tenerife footballer Jesús de Miguel has died this Tuesday at the age of 30, as reported by the club. The player suffered a cardiorespiratory arrest after a tackle from the Andorra goalkeeper and was rushed to the hospital, but doctors were unable to do anything to save his life.

It was in the last minute of stoppage time of the match being played at the Heliodoro Rodríguez López, corresponding to the 1st matchday of the Second Division. During a local counterattack, goalkeeper Jesús Owono made a very strong tackle to stop forward Jesús de Miguel, for which he was shown the red card. The Tenerife footballer collapsed onto the pitch and was evacuated by ambulance to the University Hospital Nuestra Señora de Candelaria in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the island's capital.

The footballer was admitted to the ICU, and at first, Tenerife reported that he was "stable but serious." However, bad news arrived this morning, with a statement on X reporting that he had "worsened." Finally, the tragic outcome was announced in the morning.

"There are no words of comfort, there is absolutely nothing that can appease this feeling of sadness. We stand by their devastated family, their loved ones, all of the Tenerife identity who today mourns this cruel outcome. The family of Jesús de Miguel thanks each and every one of the shows of support received and asks, from the heart, for maximum respect for their privacy in these terrible moments," says the condolence statement published by CD Tenerife.

"With broken hearts and devastated, we want to send our most sincere condolences to the family of Jesús de Miguel, to all his colleagues, friends and to CD Tenerife. May he rest in peace," published Andorra on X, where throughout the morning expressions of condolence have followed one another.

Owono wanted to apologize in private

After the clash, the Madrid-born referee Manuel Ángel Pérez stopped the game and immediately sent off Jesús Owono, who was heading towards the dressing rooms when his teammates warned him of the consequences of the blow. Immediately after, he went back to check on the state of health of his fellow professional, and ended up leaving the pitch dejected, while cries of "murderer, murderer" could be heard from the stands.

At that moment, nobody was thinking of the tragic outcome. According to the Cope network, Owono was very affected by the situation and, before knowing that De Miguel would end up dying, he wanted to apologize in private both to the footballer and to his family before making any public statement. The Guinean player faces a sports suspension ranging from four to eight matches.

Match suspended

The referee, Manuel Ángel Pérez Hernández, specified in the match report that he sent the players to the dressing room due to the "seriousness of the events" and that, subsequently, both parties mutually agreed to suspend the match when there were still two minutes left to play. The confrontation was stopped in the 96th minute with a 2-2 score on the scoreboard after Andorra managed to equalize from a 2-0 deficit.

The match, which was initially scheduled for this Sunday at 9:00 PM, was suspended due to the active warning of heavy rains expected in the Canary Islands. The complexity of the schedule –the CD Tenerife women's first team was also playing on Monday night at the Heliodoro Rodríguez López stadium– had left midday as one of the few viable solutions to avoid having to reschedule it for a later date.