Zidane's Emotional Tribute as France Squad Announced
Zinedine Zidane arrived to announce a squad list and found himself delivering a eulogy.
Before a single name from his 23-man France selection was read out, the national team coach stopped, drew breath and turned the press conference into a moment of collective mourning for Jesus de Miguel, the CD Tenerife forward who died after a horrific on‑field collision last week.
Football, for a few minutes, stepped aside.
A Routine Match, a Horrific Ending
De Miguel, 30, had been playing a routine Segunda Division fixture against FC Andorra on November 2. Late in the game he collided heavily with goalkeeper Jesus Owono. The impact to his chest caused a blunt cardiac injury and cardiac arrest.
Medical staff fought to revive him on the pitch. They succeeded, briefly. He was rushed to the University Hospital of Nuestra Señora de Candelaria in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, where hopes flickered through the night.
By the next morning, those hopes were gone.
A preliminary autopsy confirmed accidental chest trauma as the cause of death. Spanish police and judicial authorities opened a standard investigation into a non-natural fatality, looking at potential involuntary manslaughter and the pitchside medical protocols that followed the collision. It is the kind of administrative language that always arrives too late, when the only thing that really matters has already been lost.
Zidane’s Tribute: “It Gives Me Goosebumps”
On Friday, as he faced the media to discuss the upcoming UEFA Nations League fixtures, Zidane’s usual measured calm carried a different weight. He had already joined Spain coach Luis de la Fuente and Real Madrid president Florentino Perez in honouring De Miguel ahead of the player’s funeral in his hometown of Navahermosa.
Now, in front of the cameras, the France coach let the emotion show.
"I'm saddened by what happened, deeply affected," he said. "It even gives me goosebumps, because you never want to see something like that on a football pitch."
The room fell quiet. This was not a passing remark. Zidane lingered on the human cost, on the family left behind, on the sheer brutality of losing a player in the middle of his career to an accident in a sport that so often feels invincible.
"Above all, I feel sad for the family," he added. "I hope I never see anything like that again on a football pitch for the rest of my life."
For a man who has lived almost every possible emotion on a football field, the line felt final. A boundary. There are things even this game should never ask its participants to endure.
Football Moves On, Reluctantly
Once the tribute ended, the business of international football crept back in. It always does.
Zidane unveiled his 23-man squad for the November window, a list that will carry France into their final two matches of the calendar year and, they hope, safely into the knockout stages of the Nations League.
At the top of that list: Kylian Mbappé.
The captain returns from injury to resume his role as the team’s spearhead, a timely boost as Les Bleus look to finish the group job with authority. His presence instantly changes the temperature around the camp. With him, France do not just expect to qualify; they expect to dominate.
Alongside the familiar names, one stood out for very different reasons. Pablo Pagis, rewarded for his form at club level, has earned his first senior international call-up. For the attacker, this window represents a door flung open, a chance to step into a dressing room led by Mbappé and managed by Zidane, and to prove he belongs.
The contrast could not be starker. One young forward stepping into the light of his first cap; another remembered in the shadow of a life cut short.
A Group on the Brink
France sit on top of their Nations League group, and Zidane knows these last two fixtures will define the tone of their season’s second act. Qualification for the knockout rounds is within reach, but not yet banked. Any slip could turn a comfortable campaign into a nervy finish.
That is where Mbappé’s return matters most. Zidane will lean heavily on his captain’s sharpness, leadership and sheer presence to guide a squad that mixes established stars with emerging talent through what amounts to a decisive double-header.
The message is clear: finish the year strong, secure the path to the latter stages, and carry momentum into what lies ahead.
Yet as the press conference broke up and attention drifted toward tactics, line-ups and permutations, Zidane’s earlier words still hung in the air. A reminder that behind every squad list, every selection debate, every tactical tweak, there are players whose lives extend far beyond the touchline.
France will chase qualification over the next fortnight. The Nations League table will shift, stories will be written, reputations made and unmade.
But for many inside the game, this international window will be remembered first for something else: a coach’s voice shaking as he honoured a 30-year-old striker who never got to play his next match.
