Emiliano Sala
A body recovered from plane wreckage in
the English Channel has been identified as
28-year-old soccer player Emiliano Sala,
according to reports out of the United
Kingdom.
“The body brought to Portland Port has been
formally identified by HM Coroner for Dorset
as that of professional footballer Emiliano
Sala,†Dorset police said, according to The
Guardian. “The families of Mr. Sala and the
pilot David Ibbotson have been updated with
this news and will continue to be supported
by specially trained family liaison officers.â€
The confirmation brings to an end a
dispiriting two and a half weeks since the
plane carrying Sala and Ibbotson
disappeared on Jan. 21 while traveling from
Nantes, France, to Cardiff City, Wales,
where the Argentine was set to debut as
Cardiff’s record $19 million signing. The
whereabouts of Ibbotson are still unknown.
Cardiff City Football Club released a
statement of its own:
It is with great sadness that we report the
following statement, issued on February 7th
2019 by the Dorset Police:
“The body brought to Portland Port today,
Thursday 7 February 2019, has been formally
identified by HM Coroner for Dorset as that
of professional footballer Emiliano Sala.
“The families of Mr Sala and the pilot David
Ibbotson have been updated with this news
and will continue to be supported by
specially-trained family liaison officers.â€
We offer our most heartfelt sympathies and
condolences to the family of Emiliano. He
and David will forever remain in our
thoughts.
According to the BBC, the Piper Malibu
N264DB aircraft disappeared from radar at
2,300 feet on Jan. 21, and air traffic
control alerted Her Majesty’s Coastguard at
8:23 p.m. local time when it couldn’t
contact the plane.
Britain’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch
found the plane wreckage on Sunday 67
meters under water on the seabed 21 miles
off the coast of the island of Guernsey.
The search was initially called off by the
Guernsey harbor master on Jan. 24, but
resumed amid pleas from Sala’s family and
the support of several soccer stars, like
Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, Paris Saint-
Germain’s Kylian Mbappe and Manchester
City’s Ilkay Gundogan.
The body was glimpsed in underwater
footage taken of the wreckage and
recovered by remotely operated vehicles
(or ROVs) on Wednesday. The plane itself,
however, was deemed irretrievable due to
poor weather conditions and the AAIB
halted any further attempts to recover it.
Sala was born on Oct. 31, 1990, in the town
of Cululú in the Santa Fe Province of
Argentina, the same province where Messi
was born. He played for youth clubs in his
native Sante Fe and later in Córdoba, which
served as a partner club to Bordeaux in
France. After being spotted by scouts, Sala
spent three years with Bordeaux from
2012-2015, where he was loaned out to
smaller French clubs three separate times,
and signed for FC Nantes in July of 2015
for a fee of around $1.1 million.
While with Nantes, Sala scored 48 goals in
133 appearances across all competitions,
using his 6-foot-3-inch frame to offer an
aerial threat while also possessing a good
work rate and a knack for hold-up play,
among other qualities. Sala scored 29
goals total in 2016-17 and 2017-18, helping
lead Nantes to top-10 finishes in the Ligue
1 table both seasons. He had scored 13
goals in 19 matches overall this season,
and it’s clear to see why relegation-battling
Cardiff City coveted his services.
Sala was unveiled at Cardiff on Jan. 18,
and he had flown back to Nantes to say
goodbye to his teammates.
Source:
www.tori.ng/news/115969/emiliano-
sala-confirmed-dead-after-tragic-plane-
wr.html
