Premier League club Cardiff City’s record new signing,
Argentina-born striker Emiliano Sala, was on board a light aircraft that
disappeared over the English Channel on Monday night, police sources
told AFP.

 Sala, signed by Cardiff on Saturday
from French club Nantes for a reported 17 million euro ($19.3 million)
fee, was flying to Cardiff aboard a small plane that disappeared from
radars around 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of the island of Guernsey.

A statement from police on Guernsey, a British
island just off the coast of France, said lifeboats and helicopters had
searched for several hours for the plane, which had two people on
board, without success.

“The search was terminated at 02:00,
with all search and rescue assets being stood down, due to strengthening
winds, worsening sea conditions and reducing visibility,” the statement
said.

Helicopters from the British and French
coastguard joined renewed efforts on Tuesday morning to find the plane
which is thought to have crashed.

Sala,
28, who had been at Nantes since 2016 and had scored 12 league goals
this season, had signed a three-and-a-half-year contract with
relegation-threatened Cardiff subject to receiving international
clearance.

When he put pen to paper at Cardiff on
Saturday, he said in a statement: “I’m very happy to be here. It gives
me great pleasure and I can’t wait to start training, meet my new
team-mates and get down to work.

“For me it feels special (to be the club’s
record signing). I have come here wanting to work and to help my
team-mates and the club.”