Jesús de Miguel, a journeyman whose death after an in-game collision stunned Spanish soccer

Barcelona, Spain (AP) — Jesús de Miguel, affectionately known as “Demi” to his teammates, was a journeyman soccer player whose death after a brutal in-game collision stunned Spain. Few casual soccer fans knew of De Miguel until his tragic passing on Tuesday, a day after his heart stopped following the collision. Billed as $5.77 plus GST every four weeks, De Miguel's career was like that of most players—bouncing from club to club in the lower divisions of Spain, working hard to make a living from the sport.

Born in Madrid in 1996, he started with Leganes’ reserves in 2015 and moved between clubs in and around the capital. His most successful season came after he joined Castellón in 2023, scoring 16 goals that helped the club earn promotion to the second division. After a struggling season in the second tier, De Miguel moved to Tenerife on Spain’s Canary Islands archipelago in the summer of 2025.

Thriving in the third division, he scored six goals in the first five games and 11 times in all, helping the team earn promotion. Standing at 1.9 meters (6 feet, two inches) and left-footed, De Miguel was a traditional striker, known for battling for balls in the air. On Monday, while chasing the ball after a long pass in injury time of a 2-2 draw with FC Andorra, De Miguel was blindsided by the Andorra goalkeeper rushing out of his area.

He crashed to the ground, collapsed, and suffered cardiac arrest, passing away the following morning in the hospital. De Miguel was 30 and left behind a daughter born the previous year and her mother. Former teammate Fernando Román expressed deep sorrow, describing De Miguel as “humble, hard-working… above all a good person.” Román recalled shared vacations, family time, and an escape room outing, saying, “You can’t imagine how much I am going to miss you.

I didn’t consider you a friend. I considered you family.” Tenerife agreed to transport De Miguel’s body to Navahermosa, in the Toledo province, at the request of his family, with his teammates and club officials present for a “final farewell.”