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 Guernsey, sources confirmed on
condition of anonymity.
A statement from police on Guernsey, a British
island just off the coast of France, said lifeboats and a helicopter
had searched for several hours for the plane, which had two people and a
pilot on board.
“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.
“At this time no trace of the missing aircraft had been found,” it added.
Two helicopters, two planes and a lifeboat
joined renewed efforts on Tuesday morning to find the single-propeller
plane which is thought to have crashed.
Sala,
28, who had been at Nantes since 2016 and had scored 13 goals in all
competitions this season, had signed a three-and-a-half-year contract
with relegation-threatened Cardiff subject to receiving international
clearance.
Neither club has commented publicly on the
disappearance, but Nantes have postponed their French Cup match against
third-tier side Entente SSG on Wednesday as a mark of respect.
When he put pen to paper at Cardiff
on Saturday, Sala, who also has Italian nationality, 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.”
Sala’s last post on Instagram showed him surrounded by players from FC Nantes. “La ultima ciao (the last goodbye),” he wrote.
The accident, if confirmed, would come only
three months after the Thai billionaire owner of Leicester City football
club died in a helicopter crash that shocked the club and supporters
around the world.
Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha and four others died
on October 28 shortly after taking off from the pitch of the club’s
stadium in central England.
Disconnected cockpit pedals, which are used to
control the rotor on the helicopter’s tail, were found to be the cause
of the accident by investigators.
Cardiff currently sit third from bottom of the English Premier League with 19 points.
‘Likeable lad’
Sala, who also holds an Italian passport,
began his footballing career at French club Bordeaux, which he joined as
a teenager, and spent loan spells at other French clubs including
Orleans, Niort and Caen.
He joined Nantes in 2016 for one million euros
and appeared to be peaking as a player in recent seasons, overcoming
technical shortcomings that had held him back earlier in his career.
He was tipped for a move to Turkish giants Galatasaray last summer.
“He’s a very likeable lad, very hard working,” his coach at Nantes, Vahid Halilhodzic, said of him recently.