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.