Emiliano Sala: Grieving Argentines pay tribute in footballer’s home region of Santa Fe

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Cardiff City manager Neil Warnock and club CEO Ken Choo joined mourners at the funeral of Emiliano Sala in his hometown in Argentina on Saturday.

The striker’s body was repatriated on Friday before it was returned to Progreso, about 350 miles from Buenos Aires, for the public vigil.

Argentines also paid tribute to footballer at a special memorial in his home region of Santa Fe. Sala's mother and father were also present at the vigil.

Cardiff's players wore shirts bearing yellow daffodils in memory of Sala, who became the club's record £15 million signing days before his death.

The body of the 28-year old, who died in a plane crash last month, was laid out in a gymnasium in the town where he grew up so friends and family could pay their last respects.

A single-engine plane carrying Sala from his French club Nantes to his new team Cardiff City crashed on 21 January in the English Channel, before he could make his debut for the Premier League side.

Wreckage was found on 3 February following a privately-funded underwater search and a body recovered three days later.

The gymnasium of the Atletico y Social San Martin de Progreso club hosted boys’ teams where Sala played as a child.

Residents in the town of around 2,500 people, many wearing the red and black shirt of the local side with the name EMI on the back, began arriving at about 7am on Saturday to see the body and pay their last respects.

Outside, fans draped a banner saying, “Emi, nunca caminaras soloa” or “You’ll Never Walk Alone”.

“It’s as if he was a member of my family,” said a sobbing Lucia Torres, who lives nearby. “It’s something I cannot understand nor accept because it hurts so much. The town has been in darkness ever since.”

“I would like to find a responsible person... someone who says to me, ‘This happened’, but, well, it seems this was just an accident,” said Sala’s aunt, Mirta Taffarel.