Emiliano Raúl Sala ( spanish pronunciation : [ emiˈljano ˈsala ] ; 31 October 1990 – 21 January 2019 ) was an Argentine professional football player who played as a advancing. After playing youth football in Argentina and following a curtly spell in Portugal ‘s regional leagues, Sala began his master career in France with Bordeaux, making his professional introduction in February 2012. After struggling to break into the first team, he was loaned out to Championnat National side Orléans and Ligue 2 side Niort in consecutive seasons. He enjoyed prolific spells with both clubs, scoring 39 goals between them, before returning to Bordeaux. After initially being promised an increased function after his successful loans, Sala fell out of favor again, and alternatively, joined fellow Ligue 1 side Caen on loan.
Reading: Emiliano Sala
In 2015, he signed for Nantes on a permanent basis. With Nantes, he made more than 100 appearances in Ligue 1, and achieved a successful goalscoring record, finishing as the club ‘s top goalscorer for three back-to-back seasons. His kind prompted a be active to Cardiff City in January 2019, for a clubhouse record tip of £15 million ( €18 million ). Sala died in a plane barge in off Alderney on 21 January 2019. He was a passenger aboard a Piper Malibu lighter aircraft flying from Nantes to Cardiff. An initial three-day research covered 4,400 squarely kilometres ( 1,700 sq secret intelligence service ) across the English Channel. Two subsequent private searches were launched, resulting in the discovery of the wreckage on 3 February ; Sala ‘s torso was recovered four days later .
early biography and personal life [edit ]
Sala was born in the town of Cululú, Santa Fe Province, Argentina, to Horacio Sala and Mercedes Taffarel. [ 3 ] [ 4 ] His father worked as a hand truck driver ; the family later moved to Progreso. [ 3 ] [ 5 ] He held an italian recommendation. [ 3 ] He had a brother, Dario, and a sister, Romina. [ 6 ] He was a fan of Independiente and, [ 7 ] while growing up, he studied footage of his darling football player, Gabriel Batistuta. [ 8 ] Sala ‘s beget, Horacio, died of a heart attack on 26 April 2019, three months after his son ‘s death. [ 9 ]
Professional career [edit ]
early career [edit ]
Sala began playing football for San Martín de Progreso, where he remained until he was 15 years old. [ 10 ] [ 11 ] He then moved to San Francisco, Córdoba to play at football school Proyecto Crecer after being spotted by a scout. [ 10 ] [ 11 ] [ 5 ] The baseball club was immediately affiliated with spanish golf club RCD Mallorca and french side FC Girondins de Bordeaux, scouting local players in the area. [ 10 ] After joining the baseball club, he moved into a board house with early players from the baseball club ‘s youth system. [ 5 ] He played six Preferente matches for spanish cabaret cadmium Soledad B between October 2007 and February 2008. [ 12 ] [ 13 ] In 2009, while life in Granada, Spain, he was recommended to Portuguese District side FC Crato by a chap argentine football player who played there and joined the Portuguese team. [ 14 ] Sala played one official match for Crato, scoring doubly, but suddenly decided to leave the golf club and return to Argentina, saying that his girlfriend was “ in worry ” in his fatherland. [ 15 ]
bordeaux [edit ]
At the senesce of 20, during the 2010–11 season, [ 16 ] Sala moved to Europe to sign for Bordeaux, the french collaborator club from Proyecto Crecer. [ 17 ] After arriving in France, Sala briefly lived with the baseball club ‘s young coach Marcelo Vada and his son, Sala ‘s teammate, Valentín Vada, who were from the same region of Argentina. [ 18 ] Having progressed through the clubhouse ‘s reserve team, Sala grew frustrated with his miss of first-team play time, and his agentive role offered him to several italian clubs, including Sorrento, but this was rejected in each case. [ 17 ] On 8 February 2012, Sala made his Bordeaux senior competitive debut in the 2011–12 Coupe de France round of 16 3–1 aside kill against Olympique Lyonnais, coming on as a alternate in the 105th minute for Jussiê. [ 19 ] unable to establish himself in the beginning team, Bordeaux hoped to loan Sala out in regulate to gain experience and he was expected to sign for a team in Spain before his agent rejected the be active, wanting Sala to remain in France. He alternatively joined Championnat National english US Orléans on loan after being spotted by coach Oliver Frapolli a class previously. Frapolli described Sala as “ the best player on the team, without question ”, [ 16 ] as he went on to score nineteen goals for the club in 37 appearances. [ 20 ] He helped the club to an eighth-place finish in the Championnat National. [ 21 ] On 2 July 2013, Sala agreed a deal to join Ligue 2 clubhouse Chamois Niortais on loan for the entire 2013–14 season. [ 22 ] He enjoyed a steady return through the first half of the season before finding form in March, scoring eleven goals in his concluding twelve appearances including scoring his first base career hat-trick in a 4–2 victory over Stade Lavallois. [ 16 ] He finished the season with 20 goals in all competitions, [ 2 ] with his sum of 18 league goals setting a new club commemorate for goals in a one temper. [ 7 ] At the begin of the 2014–15 season, Sala was brought into the first team team with Bordeaux by coach Willy Sagnol and was rewarded with a biennial extension to his sign. [ 21 ] [ 23 ] He scored his inaugural senior finish for the clubhouse after converting a penalty during a 4–1 frustration to Monaco. [ 24 ] however, it proved to be his only goal in eleven appearances, and he was loaned to SM Caen, another Ligue 1 clubhouse, for the second one-half of the 2014–15 season as a replacement for Mathieu Duhamel. [ 25 ] Caen had previously tried to sign Sala at the start of the temper but had been rejected by Bordeaux. [ 24 ] He made his debut for Caen on 1 February 2015 in a 1–0 victory over Saint-Étienne. He scored his first goal for the clubhouse in his third gear appearance, during a 2–2 draw with Paris Saint-Germain two weeks later, and scored a brace against RC Lens in his following match. [ 2 ] He scored five goals for Caen during his lend spell before returning to Bordeaux. [ 18 ]
Nantes [edit ]
Sala ( right ) playing for Nantes in 2015 On 20 July 2015, Sala joined Ligue 1 club Nantes on a five-year contract with Nantes paying a reported transfer tip of €1 million to Bordeaux. [ 26 ] [ 27 ] He made his introduction for Nantes on the opening sidereal day of the 2015–16 temper, during a 1–0 victory over Guingamp, and scored his beginning finish for the baseball club on 5 December 2015 in a 1–1 draw with Ajaccio. [ 2 ] In January 2016, Nantes rejected a command of £3 million from Wolverhampton Wanderers for Sala. [ 28 ] In his first season, despite scoring alone six times, he finished the year as the club ‘s top goalscorer. [ 18 ] During his second season, Sala scored twelve league goals for Nantes, the highest score musician in a unmarried season for the cabaret since Olivier Monterrubio in 2000–01. [ 29 ] He equaled his run again in the 2017–18 temper, finishing as Nantes ‘ top scorer for the third base back-to-back temper since his arrival at the baseball club. [ 30 ] At the start of the 2018–19 season, Sala fell out of favour under new coach Miguel Cardoso who preferred Kalifa Coulibaly as the club ‘s first choice hitter. turkish english Galatasaray made a recently bid to sign Sala on the last day of the summer transfer window but the move late collapsed. [ 27 ] Sala doubly made goalscoring appearances as a substitute and was restored to the get down line up under Cardoso before the coach was sacked in October 2018. Vahid Halilhodžić was appointed as the golf club ‘s modern coach and in his first gear equal in charge, [ 27 ] on 20 October 2018, Sala scored a hat-trick in a 4–0 Ligue 1 home gain over Toulouse. He therefore became the foremost FC Nantes player to score three goals in a Ligue 1 match since Mamadou Diallo did so against FC Sochaux-Montbéliard in February 2006. [ 31 ] At the end of October, he was voted Ligue 1 Player of the Month having scored four goals in three matches during the month. [ 32 ] Sala ‘s good form saw him as the joint-highest goalscorer in Ligue 1 at the start of December, his score of twelve goals tied with Paris Saint-Germain ‘s Kylian Mbappé. [ 33 ] On 5 December, Sala scored his concluding goal for the club in a 3–2 Ligue 1 base victory over Olympique de Marseille. [ 30 ] On 16 January 2019, he played his concluding match for the club in a 1–0 Ligue 1 away get the better of against Nîmes Olympique. [ 2 ] In 2021, it was announced that a pre-season tournament would be held in July in Sala ‘s honor, with Nantes, Bordeaux, Caen and Niort invited to play by early Orléans goalkeeper and ex-teammate of Sala, Thomas Renault. [ 34 ] [ 35 ]
Cardiff City [edit ]
On 19 January 2019, Sala joined Premier League side Cardiff City on a three and a half-year manage for a club record transfer fee, [ 36 ] reported to be £15 million. The transfer beat the previous club record of £11 million paid for Gary Medel in 2013. [ 37 ] As share of a sell-on article, 50 % of the transfer fee was due to his first professional club Bordeaux. [ 38 ] Sala rejected a late bid from a club in the chinese Super League to join Cardiff, despite being offered a higher wage, due to his hope to play in the Premier League. [ 39 ] Following Sala ‘s death, Nantes demanded the remove fee from Cardiff. [ 40 ] In September 2019, FIFA ruled in Nantes ‘ favor and ordered Cardiff to pay a first installation of €6 million ( £5.3 million ), and the remainder the follow January. [ 41 ] In December 2019, Cardiff City launched an appeal against FIFA ‘s decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. [ 42 ]
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disappearance and death [edit ]
After completing his aesculapian at Cardiff, Sala returned to Nantes on Saturday 19 January, on a plane arranged by football agent Mark McKay. [ 43 ] His purpose was to return to Cardiff on Monday 21 January, in regulate to attend his beginning train seance with his new cabaret the watch good morning. [ 44 ] Sala had been invited to attend Cardiff ‘s match against Newcastle United by director Neil Warnock, but he returned to France to say adieu to his Nantes teammates and roll up personal belongings. [ 45 ] On 21 January, the Piper Malibu aircraft, which was flying Sala from Nantes to Cardiff, disappeared off Alderney. [ 46 ] The same aircraft and navigate had flown Sala to Nantes two days earlier. [ 43 ] [ 47 ] On 23 January, Channel Islands Air Search reported that there was “ no promise ” of finding any survivors in the water. [ 48 ] An audio message, allegedly sent from the plane by Sala to his friends via WhatsApp, was released by Argentine media release Olé. The audio message translates as follows : [ 49 ]
Hello, my brothers, how are you ? Boy, I ’ meter tired. I was here in Nantes taking care of things, things, things, things, things, things, and it never stops, it never stops, it never stops. Anyway guys, I ’ m up in this plane that feels like it ‘s falling to pieces, and I ’ thousand going to Cardiff. [ It ‘s ] crazy, we start tomorrow. prepare in the afternoon, guys, in my new team … Let ‘s see what happens. so, how ‘s it going with you guys, all good ? If in an hour and a half you have no news from me, I do n’t know if they are going to send person to look for me because they can not find me, but you will know … Man, I ‘m daunt !
Guernsey Police initially searched for three days about 4,400 km2 ( 1,700 sq mi ) across the English Channel. [ 50 ] At 15:15 GMT on 24 January 2019, after a “ very thorough and extensive search ” including eighty hours of compound searching undertaken by three planes, five helicopters and two lifeboats, [ 47 ] the patrol announced that they had called off the search for the aircraft or any survivors. [ 51 ] [ 52 ] The decision led to calls worldwide for the search to continue, including numerous other footballers, among them fellow argentine players Lionel Messi, Gonzalo Higuaín, Sergio Agüero and former player Diego Maradona. [ 53 ] [ 54 ] The president of the united states of Argentina, Mauricio Macri, stated his intention to request the british and french governments to resume the search. [ 55 ] An on-line petition besides attracted over 65,000 signatures and Sala ‘s family late announced their decision to fund a secret search. [ 55 ] [ 56 ] Over £280,000 was raised for this search on GoFundMe started by Sports Cover, [ 57 ] a sports agency that represented Sala. [ 58 ] The funds enabled the private search to commence on 26 January, with the launch of two boats, led by marine scientist David Mearns. [ 57 ] On 28 January, plans were announced for an submerged research to begin “ within a week ”, subject on weather conditions, using an unman remotely function submerged vehicle ( ROV ) to search an area of ocean floor north of Hurd ‘s Deep. [ 45 ] On 29 January, Cardiff City included Sala on the team sheet for their bet on against Arsenal, with a daffodil next to his mention in space of a police squad number. [ 59 ] On 30 January, the Air Accidents Investigation Branch ( AAIB ) reported that they had found two seat cushions washed up on a french beach, which were believed to be from the missing aircraft. [ 60 ] On 3 February, another subaqueous search for the aircraft began, using the AAIB ‘s Geo Ocean III vessel and a privately fund vessel, which were conducting sonar surveys of the ocean floor. The planned search, lasting three days, would cover an area of 14 public square kilometres ( 4 square nautical miles ), about 44 km ( 24 nmi ) north of Guernsey. [ 61 ] [ 62 ] [ 63 ] At approximately 21:11 GMT, six hours after the new search began, wreckage from the aircraft was found [ 64 ] [ 65 ] at a depth of 63 metres ( 205 feet ; 35 fathoms ). [ 66 ] On 4 February, investigators stated that there was one body visible inside the wreckage. [ 67 ] [ 68 ] On 7 February, the body was recovered from the wreckage and taken to the Isle of Portland to be passed to the Dorset coroner. [ 69 ] [ 70 ] Later that day, Dorset Police identified the body as Sala ‘s by means of fingerprint evidence. [ 71 ] [ 72 ] [ 73 ] Nantes subsequently retired his former numeral 9 jersey. [ 74 ] On 11 February, the results of a post mortem reported that Sala had died of “ head and trunk injuries ”. [ 73 ] Sala ‘s soundbox was taken back to Argentina on 15 February 2019 and his funeral was held, in his hometown of Progreso, the postdate sidereal day. [ 75 ] [ 76 ] On 25 February 2019, a special Bulletin was issued by the AAIB, giving a radar track of final section of flight including photograph of the wreckage on the sea-bed. It examined, in some detail, the regulative framework for the accident flight. [ 77 ] On 28 February, ex-football agentive role Willie McKay, who had arranged the flight, said that Sala had been “ abandoned ” by Cardiff City and was left to arrange his own change of location. McKay ‘s son Mark was Nantes ‘ acting agentive role in the deal for Sala. The football club said they “ powerfully reject ” the claim they neglected to provide Sala with travel arrangements. [ 78 ] On 29 April, two people were arrested after a photograph purporting to show the dead torso of Emiliano Sala during a autopsy was posted on Twitter. [ 79 ] On 19 June 2019, Dorset Police announced that they had arrested a man on suspicion of manslaughter by an unlawful act in deference of the death of Sala. His identity was not made populace, but several newspapers identified the man as pilot burner David Henderson, who arranged the flight and had primitively intended to fly the plane. [ 80 ] [ 81 ] [ 82 ] On 11 March 2020, it was reported that no far military action would be taken against the man. [ 83 ] however, in October 2021, Henderson was prosecuted and found guilty to arranging a trajectory without permission or mandate and of endangering the safety of an aircraft. [ 84 ] [ 85 ] On 14 August, it was reported that toxicology tests on Sala ‘s body showed high gear levels of exposure to carbon monoxide, and the AAIB considered it was likely that the pilot would besides have been exposed to the boast, potentially leading to drowsiness or unconsciousness. [ 86 ] In 2021, a competition called the Challenge Emiliano Sala was created in honor of Sala. It was contested between four of Sala ‘s former clubs in France, with Bordeaux winning the foremost deed. [ 87 ] [ 88 ]
style of play [edit ]
Sala stated that he modelled his style on his idol, former Argentine international fore Gabriel Batistuta. [ 8 ] BBC Sport compared Sala to Jamie Vardy, describing him as “ a actor who likes wide spaces and being part of a team that has a hard counter-attacking style. ” [ 89 ] A big and knock-down striker, [ 90 ] he was besides recognised for his ability to hold the ball up and was described as possessing “ fair ” pace ; [ 91 ] he besides drew praise in the media for his work-rate, doggedness, eye for goal, and finishing ability. [ 90 ]
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career statistics [edit ]
club [edit ]
Club[2]
Season
League
Cup
Continental
Total
Division
Apps
Goals
Apps
Goals
Apps
Goals
Apps
Goals
Crato
2009–10
Portalegre First Division
1
2
0
0
—
1
2
Total
1
2
0
0
—
1
2
Orléans (loan)
2012–13
Championnat National
37
19
0
0
—
37
19
Niort (loan)
2013–14
Ligue 2
37
18
3
2
—
40
20
Total
74
37
3
2
—
77
39
Bordeaux
2014–15
Ligue 1
11
1
1
0
—
12
1
Total
11
1
1
0
—
12
1
Caen
2014–15
Ligue 1
13
5
0
0
—
13
5
Total
13
5
0
0
—
13
5
Nantes
2015–16
Ligue 1
31
6
4
0
—
35
6
2016–17
34
12
5
3
—
39
15
2017–18
36
12
2
2
—
38
14
2018–19
19
12
2
1
—
21
13
Total
120
42
13
6
—
133
48
Cardiff City
2018–19
Premier League
0
0
0
0
—
0
0
Career total
219
87
17
8
0
0
236
95
Honours [edit ]
Individual