Football comes together across Spain to honour Jesús de Miguel: ‘We’ve seen how fragile life is’

Across La Liga and beyond this weekend, footballers took to the field knowing it could have been them In the final few minutes before stepping into the arena once more, heading out for his 199th Osasuna match on Saturday evening, the man who has scored more first division goals than anyone in their history stopped his teammates for a moment and told them what it meant to wear the shirt. “This is very important,” Ante Budimir began as the dressing room, their sanctuary, fell silent around him. “We don’t have this shirt today for the sake of it. He was not chosen, and nor are we. It could have happened to anyone, anyone. Let us go knowing that we’re grateful to be on the pitch: playing, watching, warming up, sitting on the bench, whatever it may be. Boys, we were not chosen: not us, not him. Let us go, gratefully. Without thought. We have a grand day before us.” With that, Osasuna’s players turned left out of the room, where they were joined in the tunnel by footballers from Athletic Club, rivals from the north, and together they went out past the little shrine of Saint Fermin on to the field. They carried white lilies and all wore the same white shirts with a No 9 on the back, a black ribbon and the name of Jesús de Miguel, the Tenerife striker who died after a collision on the pitch five days earlier at the age of 30. At almost exactly the same time, 2,000km away to the west, Tenerife’s squad were walking out at the Heliodoro Rodríguez López in Santa Cruz. They did not have anyone alongside them, wore black suits not white shirts and did not have a game to play either, not this week. Continue reading...