Emiliano Sala: ‘A tragic plane crash; a stain on football’s reputation’

The morning of Tuesday, 22 January 2019 is etched on my memory as if it were yesterday.

I dismissed the link. Surely there must be lots of planes making that journey all the time?

But within the hour, BBC Wales football correspondent Rob Phillips reported Cardiff were “seeking clarification” about the missing plane and there was “genuine concern” at the club.

Argentine Emiliano Sala had signed for Cardiff just three days earlier in a club record £15m transfer from FC Nantes. As that Tuesday unfolded, instead of welcoming their much-anticipated new striker to a training session, they were instead facing a barrage of enquiries from the world’s media about an unfolding tragedy.

It was soon confirmed Sala was on the Piper Malibu plane – piloted, it would emerge over the next 48 hours, by David Ibbotson – when it disappeared from radar north of the Channel Islands, just over an hour after take-off from Nantes Atlantique Airport. At that time, there were no signs of wreckage.

Few stories I’ve covered as a journalist captured the public’s attention the way this one seemed to.

Sala was a prolific striker revered by Nantes supporters. For Cardiff fans he was the longed-for talismanic figure who might help save their struggling team. He was a talented, adored young footballer tragically lost just as his Premier League career was about to begin.

The level of interest in the story was such that my investigations team colleague Kayley Thomas and I were asked to start looking into the circumstances around the flight. The result is the BBC Sounds and BBC Radio Wales podcast series: Transfer: The Emiliano Sala Story. You can listen to episodes here.

As we began researching, it became clear this was a story that wouldn’t be leaving the headlines any time soon.

And as the fourth anniversary of the crash approaches, so it has proved.

When Emiliano Sala was born, a month prematurely, on 31 October 1990, his parents were warned he might never be able to run because of the effect on his respiratory system. But he exceeded all expectations, growing into a healthy and energetic child, close to his younger siblings Romina and Dario.

At the age of four, Sala’s mother Mercedes Taffarel took him to a local football club, San Martin de Progreso, initially wearing a pair of trainers as the family couldn’t afford football boots.

His passion for the sport flourished and when football scouts spotted his potential aged 15 he decided to move 200km away to train with an Argentine football college in San Francisco, in Cordoba province.

“He told me that I should let him go; that all he wanted in his life was to kick a ball and if I didn’t let him, I would be killing him inside,” Mercedes said in…