Tenerife’s Jesus De Miguel honoured in tearful tribute by teammates, fans

A bouquet of flowers marked the spot on the pitch where Jesus De Miguel fell five days earlier. His teammates returned to the stadium dressed in all black. Above them hung a banner that read “Eterno Demi 9” – Demi 9 forever – a reference to the number nine’s nickname.

In the stands, supporters chanted the name they had once roared to celebrate his goals for CD Tenerife. On Saturday, it was a wail to bid him goodbye. Thousands gathered at the Heliodoro Rodriguez Lopez stadium in Santa Cruz, the capital of Tenerife in the Spanish Canary Islands, where the forward suffered a collision on Monday that resulted in his tragic death .

Silence gave way to applause before the club’s centenary anthem was played. He recalled a teammate so reluctant to inconvenience others that, when his car broke down, he walked home without asking for help. “It’s still hard to believe that this has happened to us, Demi, ⁠⁠⁠you’ll always be one of us.