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

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Known affectionately as “Demi” to his teammates, few of Spain’s casual soccer fans had heard of Jesús de Miguel until the country was shocked by his death on Tuesday, a day after he was critically injured in a brutal in-game collision.Yet De Miguel’s career was like that of most players. He was a journeyman who worked hard to turn a sport into a livelihood, bouncing from club to club in the lower divisions of his home country.Born in Madrid in 1996, De Miguel got his start with Leganes’ reserves in 2015, and from there the striker moved between clubs in and around Spain’s capital.His most successful season as a scorer came after he joined Castellón in 2023. His 16 goals were crucial to helping the club earn promotion to the second division.After a season of struggling to score in the second tier, De Miguel left the peninsula in the summer of 2025 for Tenerife, located on Spain's Canary Islands archipelago.Back in the third division, he thrived once more, grabbin