Jesús Owono has withdrawn from social media after receiving a wave of racist and hateful comments following his collision with Tenerife forward Jesús de Miguel during a Segunda División match on Monday. De Miguel died on Tuesday, after suffering a cardiac arrest on the pitch. The game at the Heliodoro Rodríguez López stadium was stopped in the 96th minute, and Owono was sent off for the challenge.
The 25-year-old goalkeeper has made no public statement. People close to him describe him as devastated. According to the account provided, he spent much of Monday night crying and praying for De Miguel’s recovery.
Born in Bata, Equatorial Guinea, in 2001, Owono moved with his family to the Basque Country when he was eight. He began playing as a goalkeeper after stepping in for an injured classmate at a school in San Sebastián. He later developed at Antiguoko and Real Sociedad’s Zubieta academy before joining Deportivo Alavés in 2016. He made his first-team debut in Spain’s top division in 2022.
Owono is the eldest of five siblings. In a 2024 interview with El Correo, he spoke of wanting to bring his parents and siblings together in a family home and give his parents the chance to stop working. Former Alavés teammate Sugoi Soto described him as humble, hardworking and close to his family, adding that he had never had problems with anyone.
Owono joined Andorra on loan for the 2025–26 season, and the club signed him permanently the following summer. The collision with De Miguel was the first sending-off of his career, after more than 4,000 minutes at the top level, according to the source account.
Michel Owono, a defender for FC Can Vidalet who shares the goalkeeper’s surname, said on X that racist abuse had also been directed at him. He condemned what he described as growing racism, hatred and intolerance.
Sources: El País Deportes.