As storm clouds gathered above the Cardiff City Stadium on what was a grey afternoon in south Wales in more ways than one, Robert Glaves stared at the floral tributes that had been placed in the wake of the news that Emiliano Sala, the club-record signing, was on board an aeroplane that disappeared near the Channel Islands on Monday evening. “He’s going to be remembered as the best player we never had,” said Glaves, who has been following Cardiff for more than 50 years. Sala joined Cardiff for £15m from Nantes on Saturday and had flown back to France at the weekend to say farewell to his former teammates. “La ultima ciao,” or “the last goodbye,” was the poignant message the Argentinian posted on his Instagram account prior to taking his seat on a small aircraft that departed Nantes on Monday evening. Little more than an hour after take-off, Guernsey Coastguard received an alert from Jersey air traffic control that the aircraft had gone off their radar, triggering an extensive search and rescue operation that was suspended at 5pm the following day. In truth, it had been impossible not to fear the worst long before that sobering update from the police. “Waking up this morning and hearing it on the radio alarm, you think: ‘No, this is a bad dream, this just isn’t true,” said Glaves. “And then, as the day unfolded, listening to it all … absolutely shocking, isn’t it?” Half a dozen teenagers stood only a few yards away from Glaves and the statue of Fred Keenor, Cardiff’s 1927 FA Cup-winning captain, telling their story about how Sala had happily posed for a picture with them at the end of last week, shortly after the striker had completed his medical but before his transfer had officially gone through. Profile Emiliano Sala's career in focus Show Age 28 Born Santa Fe Province, Argentina, on 31 October 1990 Position Forward Club career 2012-15 Bordeaux 2012-13 Orléans (loan) 2013-14 Niort (loan) 2015 Caen (loan) 2015-19 Nantes: played as recently as last Wednesday, coming on as substitute in a 1-0 defeat at Nimes 2019 Cardiff City: signed 3.5-year deal for a club-record £15m on Saturday Photograph: Sébastien Salom-Gomis/Rex Features Was this helpful? Thank you for your feedback. “On Friday night we were coming across from having food to go and play our own football game and we were wondering if he [Sala] would be in the stadium,” said Hywel Davies, a 16-year-old Cardiff fan. “We saw him in the window by the main entrance signing some [paperwork]. So we waited outside for a bit, thinking he might come out. He did in the end and he was nice enough to come and have a photo. He was asking us how we were, he just seemed like a nice guy.” It seems strange to think that Davies and his friends spent more time with Sala than some of the Cardiff players, and in many respects that explains why this tragedy is so difficult for everyone at the Premier League club to come to terms with and understand. People are mourning a footballer that they never got to see play. The Fiver: sign up and get our daily football email There are no Sala shirts for sale in the club shop because the 28-year-old had not even been allocated a number. “Obviously there weren’t any scarves made yet, but somebody has been busy with a felt pen – that’s wonderful,” adds Glaves, pointing to a scarf, bearing Sala’s name, lying at the feet of the statue of Keenor. While the emotional attachment with Sala will understandably run deeper in Nantes, where he scored 42 goals across three and a half seasons, there is no escaping the sense of loss in Cardiff and it is hard to imagine what is going through Neil Warnock’s mind. Cardiff’s manager made the same journey as Sala when he returned from Nantes last month, after watching the striker play against Marseille and was full of excitement about the prospect of signing him. Warnock and the Cardiff board took the decision to cancel training on Tuesday and nobody at the club is quite sure what to expect when the players report on Wednesday. For now all thoughts are with Sala and the pilot on board the Piper Malibu that left Nantes at 7.15pm on Monday.<doc-sep>A search for missing Cardiff City footballer Emiliano Sala is said to have resumed after it was funded by private donations. A money-raising effort for the resumption of the search quickly passed £100,000 within hours of being launched on Friday, enabling boats to head back out to the Channel. Within 48 hours, donations had reached £278,630. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch is investigating after the light aircraft taking Sala from Nantes to Wales disappeared from radar on Monday night. The official search operation for the Piper Malibu carrying both the Argentine striker and pilot David Ibbotson was called off on Thursday. Emiliano Sala: Career in pictures Show all 12 1 /12 Emiliano Sala: Career in pictures Emiliano Sala: Career in pictures Emiliano Sala Cardiff City striker Emiliano Sala is missing and feared dead after an aeroplane carrying him and one other person went missing over the English Channel AFP/Getty Emiliano Sala: Career in pictures Emiliano Sala He first moved to France in 2011 before joining Bordeaux and making his debut in 2012 Getty Emiliano Sala: Career in pictures Emiliano Sala Sala arrived at Bordeaux after playing for Club Proyecto Crecer in Argentina Getty Emiliano Sala: Career in pictures Emiliano Sala In Ligue 1, Sala found himself going up against some of the best-known defenders such as PSG’s David Luiz Getty Emiliano Sala: Career in pictures Emiliano Sala He would join Caen on loan in 2015 Getty Emiliano Sala: Career in pictures Emiliano Sala While with Bordeaux, Sala also spent time on loan with US Orleans and Chamois Niort Getty Emiliano Sala: Career in pictures Emiliano Sala In 2015, Sala secured a move to Ligue 1 side Nantes EPA Emiliano Sala: Career in pictures Emiliano Sala Sala played 130 times for Nantes, scoring 48 goals in all competitions AFP/Getty Emiliano Sala: Career in pictures Emiliano Sala His form in France saw him catch the eye of a number of clubs around Europe AFP Emiliano Sala: Career in pictures Emiliano Sala Sala was the fifth-highest goalscorer in Ligue 1 this season with 12 goals in 19 games Getty Emiliano Sala: Career in pictures Emiliano Sala Sala agreed to join Cardiff in a club-record £15m deal on Saturday 19 January Cardiff City Emiliano Sala: Career in pictures Emiliano Sala Sala’s flight to Cardiff went missing on Monday 21 January and is believed to have crashed into the English Channel Getty Pleas for the search to resume came from the 28-year-old player’s family, Argentinian football stars Lionel Messi, Diego Maradona and Sergio Aguero, and the country’s president, Mauricio Macri. Mr Macri told his foreign minister to issue formal requests to Britain and France for search efforts to be resumed, according to a statement from his office. The GoFundMe page posted an update yesterday saying: “The call for funds launched late Friday afternoon allowed the relatives of Emiliano Sala, via a specialized organization, resume research in the Channel early Saturday morning. Two boats conduct the operations.” Footballers including Manchester City’s Ilkay Gundogan donated to the effort. Cardiff City had also told the authorities they wanted the search to be restarted. They had signed Sala for a club record £15m to bolster their attack, and he had been due to start training within days. Guernsey’s harbour master Captain David Barker said the decision to stop actively searching had been a difficult one, but the chances of survival after such a long period were extremely remote. The Sala family were planning a private search with hired divers, according to Argentinian media. Mr Ibbotson, 59, of Crowle, Lincolnshire, held a private pilot’s licence and passed a medical exam as recently as November, according to Federal Aviation Administration records. The Civil Aviation Authority said the aircraft was registered in the US so fell under American regulations. The flight left Nantes in France for Cardiff at 7.15pm on Monday, and after requesting to descend, lost contact with Jersey air-traffic control over the English Channel. Rescue teams scanned 1,700 square miles and examined mobile phone data and satellite imagery but found no trace of the aircraft. ✕ Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Sala’s sister, Romina, said: “We really are thankful for the support of all the players in the way they have said that we should not stop our efforts. “We will find a way to restart the search. We will find Emiliano and the pilot. “He is a fighter and we feel he is still out there.” Additional reporting by agencies<doc-sep>LONDON — Emiliano Sala, a soccer player who recently moved to the English Premier League, was aboard a small airplane that disappeared Monday night while crossing the English Channel, and he and the pilot are feared dead, the authorities said on Tuesday. John Fitzgerald, chief officer for Channel Islands Air Search, said that an air and sea operation would continue, but he did not expect to find either survivors or parts of the aircraft. “I think we’re sort of getting to that stage now that it would be difficult to find anyone alive,” Mr. Fitzgerald, 58, said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. “The cold would have taken effect. The tide flows so fast, there’s the wind and a lot of white water — it’s more and more unlikely for the chance of survival.” France’s Civil Aviation Authority confirmed that Mr. Sala, 28, who was about to begin playing for the club Cardiff City, was on the plane along with the pilot. Edwige Leroy, a spokeswoman for the agency, said it was not yet sure whether anyone else was aboard.<doc-sep>
AP PARIS (AP) — The search for the missing plane taking Argentine soccer player Emiliano Sala to his new team in Wales was called off for the night on Tuesday with authorities not expecting to find any survivors in the English Channel. Police said floating objects had been seen in the water but they were unable to confirm whether they were from the light aircraft that disappeared from radar Monday night off the coast of Guernsey as it made the journey from Nantes. The 28-year-old Sala had spent the previous hours saying farewell to teammates at the French city's soccer team after Cardiff signed him for a club-record fee last week. "After all this time, the weather's quite cold, the water is very cold out there ... I am not expecting anyone to be alive," Channel Islands Air Search chief officer John Fitzgerald told The Associated Press. "We just don't know how it disappeared at the end of yesterday. It just completely vanished." Authorities have found no sign of those on board. "If they did land on the water," Guernsey Police said, "the chances of survival are at this stage, unfortunately, slim." Britain's Coastguard received an alert at 8:23 p.m. on Monday from air traffic control in Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands, after it failed to make contact with the Piper PA-46 plane with two people on board, Guernsey police said. The French civil aviation authority confirmed Sala was one of the people. Authorities have been searching for 15 hours in total. They suspended the search later Tuesday after the sun set. In Sala's hometown of Progreso, Argentina, the player's father said he was running out of hope. "I don't know what to think. ... The hours pass and I am just beginning to think the worst," Horacio Sala told media gathered outside the family home. "We were in touch on Sunday. He was so happy that he was going there, to an even bigger club." Sala's last post on Instagram was a picture on Monday with Nantes players alongside a message which translates as "the last goodbye." Cardiff announced it had signed Sala for a reported 15 million pounds ($19 million) through 2022. He was in Cardiff last week to finalize the transfer, which was awaiting international clearance. The Premier League did not respond to questions about whether the transfer had been completed. "I can't wait to start training, meet my new teammates and get down to work," Sala said in a video posted on the club's website. A powerful and direct player, Sala equaled his career-best total of 12 goals — achieved in the past two seasons with Nantes — in 19 league games this season. He is fifth highest scorer in the French league, one behind Paris Saint-Germain forward Neymar, who is the world's most expensive player. "He was a polite, nice and adorable player who was loved by everybody," Nantes president Waldemar Kita told French TV channel CNews. Nantes was due to play Entente Sannois in the French Cup on Wednesday but the third-tier club said it was postponed until Sunday "following the disappearance of the plane of former player Emiliano Sala." Cardiff also canceled its training session scheduled for Tuesday, with chief executive Ken Choo saying club officials were "very distressed about the situation." "We continue to pray for positive news," Choo said. Sala, who had not played for Argentina's national team, has also played in France for Bordeaux. In Progreso, Sala's hometown, the president of the soccer club where the forward began his career told The Associated Press that these are "difficult hours" for all the locals. "There's great sadness and lots of uncertainty," San Martin de Progreso president Daniel Ribero said. "He's an example for all youth. A humble kid. He would always return to Progreso." ___ Harris reported from London. Associated Press writer Hernan Alvarez in Progreso, Argentina, contributed to this report ___ More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/apf-Soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports