It was Saturday, January 19th when Cardiff City signed 28 year-old striker Emiliano Sala for a club record fee of 15 million euros. Sitting in the 18th position of the Premier League, signing a goalscorer such as Sala would be crucial if they wanted to avoid relegation. And with the Argentinian bagging 12 goals and assisting another 2 in only 19 games, it was looking like a fine business move on Cardiff’s behalf.

Three days later, the record signing was on a plane in Nantes, France, heading for Wales, his new home to be. Something was wrong, though. During his flight, Sala was tweeting messages of concern for his safety on this plane, saying that it felt like it was “falling apart.” After that, nothing but silence, and the small aircraft disappeared from radar just over the channel islands.

After a couple days of searching, it was deemed that any chance of survival was remote and that Sala and his pilot were likely dead, so the search was discontinued.

Sala’s family pleaded for authorities to keep searching, never losing hope for the life of Emiliano. Authorities informed them that the search could not be continued and that if any search was to take place, it would have to be a private search.

News of this spread around the footballing community and FC Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, a fellow Argentinian and arguably the greatest player in the world, tweeted messages telling the authorities that if there is any chance that Emiliano is still alive, the search should continue. Players such as Chelsea’s N’golo Kante, Manchester City’s Ilkay Gundogan, Paris Saint Germain’s Kylian Mbappe, and many more donated to the search efforts of Sala’s family and they were able to fund a private search

The search has gone on for a couple of days, and there have yet to be any status updates on the situation, but we are all hoping that a miracle has occurred and Sala is alive and well.