A Forward Died After a Collision. The Goalkeeper Has Not Been Charged.

Seven minutes into stoppage time on Monday night, with the score level at 2–2, a long ball was played upfield toward the centre circle at Tenerife’s Heliodoro Rodríguez López Stadium. Forward Jesús de Miguel chased it down. FC Andorra goalkeeper Jesús Owono came a long way out of his goal to clear it, and the two men collided — Owono’s raised knee catching De Miguel in the chest.

Referee Manuel Ángel Pérez Hernández showed Owono a straight red card and abandoned the match. De Miguel was treated on the pitch and taken by ambulance to the Hospital Universitario Nuestra Señora de Candelaria. Spanish media reported he had suffered a cardiac arrest and been resuscitated on the way. His condition worsened overnight in intensive care, and at 8:00 on Tuesday morning, CD Tenerife announced that he was dead. He was 30 years old.

De Miguel — his full name was Jesús de Miguel Alameda — had joined Tenerife in the summer of 2025 on a three-year contract. He was a father of one. Spanish media reported that he leaves behind his wife and a daughter of just over a year old, and his family has asked, through the club, for privacy.

An investigation is not a charge

On Tuesday, the homicide group of Spain’s National Police opened proceedings into a possible involuntary manslaughter. In Spain, that step is automatic: any death classed as non-natural triggers a judicial inquiry, as the High Court of Justice of the Canary Islands has pointed out, and opening one does not mean a crime was committed. It does not mean Owono has been charged — no Spanish authority has announced any charge against him.

The official who would bring a charge says one is very unlikely. José Luis Sánchez-Jáuregui, the chief prosecutor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, told the EFE news agency that criminal proceedings were “very unlikely,” because the collision happened during active play. To prosecute, the state would have to show that Owono’s conduct was completely detached from the game itself. Investigators are instead working through the ordinary material — the referee’s report, the match video and the forensic findings.

A preliminary autopsy found that De Miguel died of accidental chest trauma, according to the island’s Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences; further test results are still to come, and the court has kept the report’s contents confidential out of respect for the family. Spanish reports say the inquiry also covers the medical response at the stadium and De Miguel’s transfer to hospital. His family, for its part, has said it intends to pursue legal action, according to Spanish media reports.

The record has not travelled that way online. Posts shared widely on social media this week have stated that Owono has been charged with manslaughter, banned from football altogether and fined for the family’s benefit. None of that has happened: there is no charge, no court hearing has been announced, and the Spanish federation has not issued any disciplinary ruling.

What Owono faces

What is in front of the goalkeeper is a football punishment. Pérez Hernández’s report recorded that Owono used excessive force on an opponent with the ball in play, and the Spanish federation’s disciplinary committee will set his sanction from the report and the video; The Times reported that a ban of between four and twelve matches is expected for violent conduct causing serious injury. His national team has also acted: Equatorial Guinea left him out of this month’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Zimbabwe.

On Wednesday, Andorra published a statement from Owono. “These are the most difficult days of my life,” he wrote. “I feel enormous pain over the loss of Jesús. I think of him, of his family and of everyone who loved him. I know there will be many questions to address, and I will face whatever comes with the utmost respect. But right now, honestly, I cannot think about anything other than Jesús and the pain we are experiencing. Rest in peace, Jesús.”

Andorra’s players held a minute’s silence before a voluntary training session on Wednesday; Owono was not there. The club is offering psychological support to anyone who needs it, and Equatorial Guinea’s federation president, Venancio Tomás Ndong Micha, wrote in support of his goalkeeper as “the involuntary protagonist of this tragic incident.” Owono’s team-mate Lautaro Spatz defended him in public, writing that he “would never intentionally hurt anyone.” Owono, who is 25, deactivated his social media accounts after receiving abuse online; in a case of mistaken identity, a goalkeeper at a lower-division Spanish club, Michel Owono, said he had been sent racist abuse from people who confused him with the Andorra player.

Six days of mourning

Tenerife declared six days of official mourning and suspended all club activity. Flowers, candles and scarves gathered outside the Heliodoro Rodríguez López, and on Saturday evening the club will open the stadium so supporters can say farewell. De Miguel was buried on Thursday in Navahermosa, in the province of Toledo, where his family comes from; Tenerife’s players, staff and directors travelled to the mainland to be there.

Football made room around the grief. The Spanish federation postponed this week’s Copa del Rey and Copa de la Reina matches, Tenerife’s league game at Granada and Andorra’s against Mallorca this weekend were called off, and a minute’s silence was observed before European matches this week, including Barcelona’s Champions League game against Aston Villa.

The judicial inquiry in Santa Cruz de Tenerife is still open, and the federation’s decision is still to come. Until one of those bodies rules, the record is where the prosecutor left it: a forward is dead, a goalkeeper is grieving, and no one has been charged.