Spanish footballer Jesús de Miguel Alameda, a 30-year-old striker for CD Tenerife, has died after suffering a cardiac arrest following a sickening collision with an opposing goalkeeper during a second division match, plunging Spanish football into mourning. The incident occurred in the seventh minute of stoppage time on Monday 2 November 2026 at the Estadio Heliodoro Rodríguez López, with the La Liga 2 game between Tenerife and FC Andorra level at 2-2 after De Miguel had come on as a 59th-minute substitute with his side leading 2-0, when a ball cleared from the Tenerife penalty area bounced toward midfield and Andorra’s Equatorial Guinea international goalkeeper Jesús Owono, 25, raced far out of his area to intercept it and collided at speed, striking De Miguel in the chest with his knee while making what the referee report described as a sudden high-kicking tackle using excessive force while the ball was in play. De Miguel initially remained on his knees clutching his torso before collapsing motionless, prompting frantic waves from players of both teams for medical staff who treated him on the pitch for more than five minutes, during which Spanish media reported he suffered cardiac arrest in the ambulance and had to be resuscitated on the way to the Hospital Universitario de Nuestra Señora de Candelaria in Santa Cruz where he was admitted to intensive care in critical and unconscious condition, and the match was abandoned.
On Tuesday morning at 8:00 am the club announced his death in a statement that said they were broken with pain with a lump in their throat and unable to believe that this was true, confirming that his neurological condition had deteriorated overnight despite efforts to save him. In response the Royal Spanish Football Federation suspended all football-related activities scheduled for Tuesday as a sign of respect and solidarity, postponing two Copa del Rey and Copa de la Reina matches, while police confirmed that Spain’s National Police have opened an involuntary manslaughter investigation under judicial supervision, a routine procedure for any non-natural death according to the High Court of Justice of the Canary Islands that does not automatically imply criminal liability, and the chief prosecutor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife told EFE that it is very unlikely that Owono, who was immediately shown a red card and who ran back onto the pitch to help after initially walking off and has since reportedly been in a state of shock and deactivated his Instagram after online abuse, would face criminal proceedings as injuries during a sporting event typically do not fall under criminal liability, pending the report of the RFEF Disciplinary Committee which could impose a four to twelve match ban for violent conduct causing serious harm.
