I'm not sure we've really done justice to this tragic story. This guy was up there with Neymar as a top striker in the French league. A PL league club spent £15M to secure his services. It's a massive tragedy that it's 100% certain his body now lies at the bottom of the English Channel. He could have been any big money signing for any PL club. You don't expect this to happen to young, fit footballers in the prime of life and it's such a shock to the system when these things happen. Please post your tributes.
It's a terrible accident, but it's good that his family will have some closure now and have an opportunity to find out what happened. I suppose it's a small mercy that there were only two people involved too, though I doubt it's any comfort to their loved ones.
PL clubs should offer to loan an equivalent player to Sala to Cardiff, and if one is selected the PL/FA should waive any loan quota restrictions that Cardiff would subsequently have.
Nice thread and posts guys. As a long time supporter of both clubs I can tell you that the support from Spurs fans and other clubs has been amazing. It has been a difficult 3 weeks for both Cardiff and Nantes clubs and fans and especially the families of Emiliano and the pilot. However the messages of support from the football world in general show there is much more to life than just sticking a bit of leather in the back of the onion bag. Whatever happens with Cardiff this season I look forward to visiting the new stadium in 2019/20.
I meant to mention it in the match thread, but this seems a better place for it. The minute's silence for Sala and his pilot David Ibbotson was perfectly observed on Saturday. It would have been eerie under other circumstances, as you could only hear a hum from the Wembley machinery. It's nice to see some respectful behaviour from supporters during the current run of crap stuff, even if it should be expected.
I'm glad there's been some closure for his family, although, in the circumstances, they will be left with a lot of "what its". The dream of a life changing move to the PL resulted in him losing his life before the dream had even started. That must be hard to come to terms with. If only he stayed at Nantes were he was successful and settled; if only Zohore or Madine or Reid had managed to score goals in the first half of the season. So many fateful events. If any of them had taken a different course, he'd still be alive.
Did we have a minute’s silence at the game last Saturday? I must be losing it because I can’t remember one.
Nantes are retiring their number 9 shirt as a tribute to Sala. They have also set the price of all of their tickets tomorrow to €9 to ensure a full house as they pay hommage to him.
