Thousands of mourners lined the streets today for Emiliano Sala’s funeral in Argentina.
An emotional service took place inside the footballer’s boyhood club of San Martin de Progreso, in the province of Santa Fe.
His coffin was then carried to a waiting hearse and taken to Santa Fe for a cremation ceremony.
The 28-year-old died in a tragic plane crash over the English Channel on January 21.
After weeks of searching, his body was retrieved from the underwater wreckage on February 7.
Cardiff City manager Neil Warnock said Sala’s family have had ‘some comfort’ in the fact they can have closure over his death, Wales Online reports.
Speaking at the vigil, he said: ‘I have been a manager nearly 40 years and I’ve never known anything like this.
‘It has been so emotional. People say “he never played for you†but he was my player. I chased him, I wanted him.
I’ve got goose pimples talking to you. He was my type of player – a scruffy player with a big heart. As a person I don’t know anyone who has a bad word to say about him.’
Sala’s farewell began with a public wake at 7am, in the gymnasium of San Martin de Progreso.
Outside banners declared the footballer would ‘never walk alone.’
The children of the football club then lined streets as his coffin was taken away to a private cremation service.
Nantes footballer Nicolas Pallois carried the coffin alongside Sala’s relatives, including his brother Dario and father Horacio.
Pilot David Ibbotson, who was flying the plane carrying Sala across the Channel, has still not been found.
His family have now launched a crowdfunding appeal in a bid to restart the search to find his body.
‘We can not bare the thought of him being alone,’ they wrote online.
‘We need him home so that we are able to lay him to rest to be able to say goodbye
