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Emiliano Sala, Cardiff City’s record £15million signing is still missing and presumed dead after his flight went off radar, north of Alderney at Les Casquets at 8.23pm on Monday, just an hour after taking off from Nantes Atlantique airport.
Sala signed the new contract with Cardiff at the weekend and had gone back to France on Sunday to say goodbye to teammates and friends. He was on his way back to Cardiff on Monday night when the single engine Piper PA-46 Malibu plane disappeared from radar.
While search for the aircraft is still ongoing, a chilling audio message sent to a WhatsApp group of fellow players and friends, by the Argentine footballer has energed. was bound for Cardiff.
Argentinian website Ole.com posted the audio messages on Tuesday night.
The message was meant to be harmless by the player but it turned out to be a prediction of a plane crash.
The transcript of the audio reads: “Hello, little brothers, how are you crazy people? Brother, I’m really tired, I was here in Nantes doing things, things, things, things and things, and it never stops, it never stops, it never stops.
“I’m here on a plane that looks like it’s about to fall apart, and I’m going to Cardiff, crazy, tomorrow we already start, and in the afternoon we start training, boys, in my new team.”
He later sent another message saying: ‘How are you guys, all good? If you do not have any more news from in an hour and a half, I don’t know if they need to send someone to find me… I am getting scared!’
MailSport reports that Sala, 28, had been dropped at the airport by his friend, Nantes defender Nicolas Pallois, and before boarding the plane had confided that he was concerned about the flight.
He had travelled in the same plane from Cardiff back to France on Sunday and complained about that flight being ‘bumpy’.
Rescue teams resumed search for the plane Wednesday morning. Guernsey police said floating objects had been found on the water but were unable to confirm if they were from the aircraft.
“We have found no signs of those on board,’ they tweeted. ‘If they did land on the water, the chances of survival are at this stage, unfortunately, slim.”