Thomas van den Belt mourns former team-mate Jesús de Miguel after fatal collision

FC Twente midfielder Thomas van den Belt has spoken of his grief following the death of his former CD Castellón team-mate Jesús de Miguel. The 30-year-old CD Tenerife striker died on Tuesday after suffering a serious collision during the previous day’s Segunda División match against FC Andorra.

Van den Belt addressed the loss after Twente’s 3-1 Conference League victory over Pafos FC on Thursday. He told Ziggo Sport, in comments reported by FCUpdate, that he had seen news of De Miguel’s hospitalisation on Monday evening before waking the next morning to learn that the forward had died.

The pair spent a year together at Castellón under current NEC head coach Dick Schreuder. De Miguel represented the Spanish club from 2023 to 2025, scoring 25 times in 88 league appearances before joining Tenerife. Van den Belt said the pre-match tribute at De Grolsch Veste brought the pain back to the surface, although playing football offered a brief release. The 25-year-old entered the game as an 80th-minute substitute.

UEFA arranged a minute’s silence before European matches during the week in De Miguel’s memory. FC Andorra postponed their next league fixture, while Spanish police opened an investigation on Tuesday into the circumstances of the collision with goalkeeper Jesús Owono. Tenerife are due to hold an official commemoration at their stadium on Saturday.