Product Code Database
Emiliano Raúl Sala Taffarel (; 31 October 1990 – 21 January 2019) was an Argentine professional footballer who played as a striker.
After playing youth football in Argentina and following a short spell in Portugal's regional leagues, Sala began his professional career in France with Bordeaux, making his professional debut 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 role after his successful loans, Sala fell out of favour again, and instead, joined fellow Ligue 1 side Caen on loan.
In 2015, he signed for FC 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 consecutive seasons. His form prompted a move to Cardiff City in January 2019, for a club record fee of £15 million (€18 million).
Sala was killed in a plane crash off Alderney on 21 January 2019. He was a passenger aboard a Piper Malibu light aircraft flying from Nantes to Cardiff. An initial three-day search that covered across the English Channel failed to locate the crash site. Two subsequent private searches were launched, resulting in the discovery of the wreckage on 3 February 2019; Sala's body was recovered four days later.
His father worked as a truck driver, and the family later moved to Progreso, where Sala was raised. He was a fan of Independiente, and, growing up, studied footage of his favourite footballer, Argentine international Gabriel Batistuta. Sala's parents were separated at the time of his death, and his father died of a heart attack on 26 April 2019, three months later. Sala is survived by his mother and two younger siblings, sister Romina and brother Dario.
He is described as having been "far removed from the typical image of a star footballer." In France, he settled in Carquefou, a small town outside of Nantes, and would spend his free time with friends made there or walking his Pet adoption, Nala. A local fan recalled that Sala went around town to personally say goodbye to everyone when he was set to transfer to Cardiff. Having had a close relationship with his family and Argentine friends, in his hometown of Progreso, he continues to be affectionately known as "el Emi"; matching murals of him were commissioned from the same artist in Progreso and Carquefou.
In 2009, while living in Granada, Spain, he was recommended to Portuguese District side FC Crato by a fellow Argentinian footballer who played there and joined the Portuguese team. Sala played one official match for Crato, scoring twice, but suddenly decided to leave the club and return to Argentina, saying that his girlfriend was "in trouble" in his homeland.
Having progressed through the club's reserve team, Sala grew frustrated with his lack of first-team playing time, and his agent offered him to several Italian clubs, including Sorrento, but this was rejected in each case. On 8 February 2012, Sala made his Bordeaux senior competitive debut in the 2011–12 Coupe de France round of 16 3–1 away defeat against Olympique Lyonnais, coming on as a substitute in the 105th minute for Jussiê.
Unable to establish himself in the first team, Bordeaux hoped to loan Sala out in order to gain experience and he was expected to sign for a team in Spain before his agent rejected the move, wanting Sala to remain in France. He instead joined Championnat National side US Orléans on loan after being spotted by manager Oliver Frapolli a year previously. Frapolli described Sala as "the best player on the team, without question", as he went on to score nineteen goals for the club in 37 appearances. He helped the club to an eighth-place finish in the Championnat National.
On 2 July 2013, Sala agreed a deal to join Ligue 2 club Chamois Niortais on loan for the entire 2013–14 season. He enjoyed a steady return through the first half of the season before finding form in March, scoring eleven goals in his final twelve appearances including scoring his first career hat-trick in a 4–2 victory over Stade Lavallois. He finished the season with 20 goals in all competitions, with his total of 18 league goals setting a new club record for goals in a single season.
At the start of the 2014–15 season, Sala was brought into the first team squad with Bordeaux by manager Willy Sagnol and was rewarded with a two-year extension to his contract. He scored his first senior goal for the club after converting a penalty during a 4–1 defeat to AS Monaco. However, it proved to be his only goal in eleven appearances, and he was loaned to SM Caen, another Ligue 1 club, for the second half of the 2014–15 season as a replacement for Mathieu Duhamel. Caen had previously tried to sign Sala at the start of the season but had been rejected by Bordeaux. 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 club in his third appearance, during a 2–2 draw with Paris Saint-Germain two weeks later, and scored a brace against RC Lens in his following match. He scored five goals for Caen during his loan spell before returning to Bordeaux.
During his second season, Sala scored twelve league goals for Nantes, the highest scoring player in a single season for the club since Olivier Monterrubio in 2000–01. He equaled his tally again in the 2017–18 season, finishing as Nantes' top scorer for the third consecutive season since his arrival at the club.
At the start of the 2018–19 season, Sala fell out of favour under new manager Miguel Cardoso who preferred Kalifa Coulibaly as the club's first choice striker. Turkish side Galatasaray made a late bid to sign Sala on the last day of the summer transfer window but the move later collapsed. Sala twice made goalscoring appearances as a substitute and was restored to the starting line up under Cardoso before the manager was sacked in October 2018. Vahid Halilhodžić was appointed as the club's new manager and in his first match in charge, on 20 October 2018, Sala scored a hat-trick in a 4–0 Ligue 1 home win over Toulouse FC. He thus became the first FC Nantes player to score three goals in a Ligue 1 match since Mamadou Diallo did so against FC Sochaux-Montbéliard in February 2006. At the end of October, he was voted Ligue 1 Player of the Month having scored four goals in three matches during the month.
Sala's good form saw him as the joint-highest goalscorer in Ligue 1 at the start of December, his tally of twelve goals tied with Paris Saint-Germain's Kylian Mbappé. On 5 December, Sala scored his last goal for the club in a 3–2 Ligue 1 home victory over Olympique de Marseille. On 16 January 2019, he played his final match for the club in a 1–0 Ligue 1 away defeat against Nîmes Olympique.
In 2021, it was announced that a pre-season tournament would be held in July in Sala's honour, with Nantes, Bordeaux, Caen and Niort invited to play by former Orléans goalkeeper and ex-teammate of Sala, Thomas Renault.
On 21 January, the Piper Malibu aircraft, which was flying Sala from Nantes to Cardiff, disappeared off Alderney. The same aircraft and pilot had flown Sala to Nantes two days earlier. On 23 January, Channel Islands Air Search reported that there was "no hope" of finding any survivors in the water.
An audio message, allegedly sent from the plane by Sala to his friends via WhatsApp, was released by Argentine media outlet Olé. The audio message translates as follows: Translation is from the Sky Sports article.
Guernsey Police initially searched for three days about across the English Channel. At 15:15 GMT on 24 January 2019, after a "very thorough and extensive search" including eighty hours of combined searching undertaken by three planes, five helicopters and two lifeboats, the police announced that they had called off the search. 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. The president of Argentina, Mauricio Macri, stated his intention to request the British and French governments to resume the search. An online petition also attracted over 65,000 signatures and Sala's family later announced their decision to fund a private search. Over £280,000 was raised for this search on GoFundMe started by Sports Cover, a sports agency that represented Sala. The funds enabled the private search to commence on 26 January, with the launch of two boats, led by marine scientist David Mearns.
On 28 January, plans were announced for an underwater search using an unmanned remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) to search an area of seabed north of Hurd's Deep. On 29 January, Cardiff City included Sala on the team sheet for their game against Arsenal, with a daffodil next to his name in place of a squad number. On 30 January, the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) reported finding two seat cushions washed up on a French beach, believed to be from the missing aircraft.
On 3 February, another underwater search for the aircraft began, using the AAIB's Geo Ocean III vessel and a privately funded vessel to conduct sonar surveys of the seabed covering , about north of Guernsey. At approximately 21:11 GMT, six hours after the new search began, wreckage from the aircraft was found at a depth of . On 4 February, investigators stated that there was one body visible inside the wreckage.
On 7 February, the body was recovered from the wreckage and taken to the Isle of Portland to be passed to the Dorset coroner. Later that day, Dorset Police identified the body as Sala's by means of fingerprint evidence. Nantes subsequently retired his former number 9 jersey. On 11 February, the results of a autopsy reported that Sala had died of "head and trunk injuries". Sala's body was taken back to Argentina on 15 February 2019 and his funeral was held, in his hometown of Progreso, the following day. On 25 February, a Special Bulletin was issued by the AAIB, giving a radar track of final section of flight including photographs of the wreckage on the sea-bed. It examined, in some detail, the regulatory framework for the accident flight.
On 28 February, ex-football agent Willie McKay, who had arranged the flight, said that Sala had been "abandoned" by Cardiff City and was left to arrange his own travel. McKay's son Mark was Nantes' acting agent in the deal for Sala. The football club said they "strongly reject" the claim they neglected to provide Sala with travel arrangements. On 29 April, two people were arrested after a photograph purporting to show the dead body of Emiliano Sala during a Autopsy was posted on Twitter.
On 19 June 2019, Dorset Police announced that they had arrested a man on suspicion of manslaughter by an unlawful act in respect of the death of Sala. His identity was not made public, but several newspapers identified the man as pilot David Henderson, who arranged the flight and had originally intended to fly the plane. On 14 August, it was reported that toxicology tests on Sala's body showed high levels of exposure to carbon monoxide, and the AAIB considered it was likely that the pilot would also have been exposed to the gas, potentially leading to drowsiness or unconsciousness.
On 13 March 2020, the AAIB determined that the pilot lost control of the aircraft while manoeuvring to avoid cloud at an excessive airspeed, causing an in-flight breakup, and that the carbon monoxide leaking into the cabin had likely rendered Sala unconscious and impaired the pilot's judgement. The AAIB found that the pilot and operator were not licenced to conduct commercial air charter, and a contributing factor in the crash was the operator's failure to follow the higher operational standards required for commercial flying. On 11 March 2020, it was reported that no further action would be taken against Henderson. However, in October 2021, Henderson was prosecuted and found guilty of arranging a flight without permission or authorisation and of endangering the safety of an aircraft.
In September 2022, the BBC released recordings of the pilot, David Ibbotson, who also died in the crash, saying "I'll be wearing my life jacket" on the journey from France to Wales. He had also stated to friends that the 35-year-old airplane was "dodgy". The recordings further revealed what Ibbotson said about a previous flight in the same aircraft:
In 2021, a competition called the Challenge Emiliano Sala was created in honour of Sala. It was contested between four of Sala's former clubs in France, with Bordeaux winning the first title.
Career statistics
+ Appearances and goals by club, season and competition Crato 2009–10 Portalegre First Division 2 Orléans (loan) 2012–13 Championnat National 19 Niort (loan) 2013–14 Ligue 2 20 Bordeaux 2014–15 Ligue 1 1 Caen (loan) 2014–15 Ligue 1 5 FC Nantes 2015–16 Ligue 1 6 2016–17 Ligue 1 15 2017–18 Ligue 1 14 2018–19 Ligue 1 13
Honours
Individual
See also
External links
Categories: 1990 Births, 2010s Missing Person Cases, 2019 Deaths, Argentine Expatriate Men's Footballers, Argentine Expatriate Sportspeople In France, Argentine Expatriate Sportspeople In Portugal, Argentine Expatriate Sportspeople In Spain, Argentine Expatriate Sportspeople In Wales, Argentine People Of Italian Descent, Sportspeople Of Italian Descent, Men's Association Football Forwards, Argentine Men's Footballers, Cardiff City F.c. Players, Chamois Niortais Fc Players, Championnat National Players, Divisiones Regionales De Fútbol Players, Expatriate Men's Footballers In Spain, Expatriate Men's Footballers In Portugal, Expatriate Men's Footballers In France, Expatriate Men's Footballers In Wales, Fc Nantes Players, Fc Girondins De Bordeaux Players, Formerly Missing Argentine People, Ligue 1 Players, Ligue 2 Players, Missing Person Cases In Europe, People From Las Colonias Department, People Who Died At Sea, Footballers From Santa Fe, Argentina, Stade Malherbe Caen Players, Us Orléans Players, Sportspeople Killed In Aviation Accidents Or Incidents, Victims Of Aviation Accidents Or Incidents In 2019, 21st-century Argentine Sportsmen
|
|
