The body found in the wreckage of a plane that crashed in the English Channel was identified as missing Argentine soccer star Emiliano Sala on Thursday.
The 28-year-old striker and pilot David Ibbotson, 59, were aboard the single-engine aircraft when it vanished Jan. 21 on route to Cardiff, the capital of Wales, from the French city of Nantes.
Investigators found the wreckage of the Piper PA-46 Malibu on the seabed of the Channel Sunday, with a body visible inside.
Efforts to retrieve the body were hampered by difficult weather conditions but it was finally brought to Isle of Portland on Wednesday night and then ID’d as the former FC Nantes player.
“The body brought to Portland Port has been formally identified by HM Coroner for Dorset as that of professional footballer Emiliano Sala,” Dorset police said Thursday, according to the Guardian UK. “The families of Mr Sala and the pilot David Ibbotson have been updated with this news and will continue to be supported by specially trained family liaison officers.”
It’s still unclear exactly how Sala died.
Sala was headed to Cardiff to make his debut in the English Premier League after departing the French soccer club FC Nantes.
Hours before his plane went off radar, he posted one “final goodbye” to his former teammates.
“La ultima ciao,” Sala wrote in the Twitter post that included a photo of himself grinning and flanked by the French team.