As the search continues for Cardiff City’s new striker Emiliano Sala and the pilot of his aircraft, Bluebirds fan Josh Thomas gives a personal perspective. From feelings of excitement at his signing, to dread when he heard the news, and the sadness for those who wanted to welcome him.
Around 1:30am this morning, I received a message from my friend telling me that a plane had gone missing over Alderney in the Channel Islands.
The plane – he continued – was on a journey from Nantes, a city in Northern France, to Wales and our capital city of Cardiff.
We agreed that the connections and circumstances were all too similar to those of Emiliano Sala, who we knew had been travelling to Cardiff to begin his new chapter with Cardiff City.
I remember going to bed last night and thinking and hoping that it wasn’t true. I received another message when I woke up, asking if I had heard the updated news. That was when it started to feel horribly real.
Within a few more minutes, so many people started to speak and share news about it and I genuinely feared the worst.
As a Cardiff City fan, the excitement of a new signing arriving at your club can bring so much happiness. None more so than Emiliano Sala.
Not only was he our new record signing, he was the one who was going to turn our fortunes around. He was the man who might just go on to score the goals that would keep us up in the Premier League.
He was the one who was going to be adored by the fans . . . including me.
Within a few hours of the excitement of his signing at the weekend, so much has changed.
I went to bed last night hoping to wake up to better news. But later on Tuesday morning, when it was confirmed that it was indeed Sala on the plane, it felt like a terrible nightmare.
I don’t know this guy. I’ve never even seen him play, never mind met him. But I’m feeling distressed. I’m worried. You can’t imagine what his family must be going through. So many fantastic headlines at the weekend – so many truly, unimaginably awful ones today.
Our feelings as fans are nothing compared to theirs, but there is certainly a sense of loss, of sadness.
Signing Sala seemed to be the final piece of the jigsaw for this squad and the excitement he bought to the clubs he played for would have been the same for us.
His popular presence around the dressing room would have helped bring up the morale, I’m sure, and he would have become an important player in our team.
I look at his sacrifices he made in order to move from France to Wales – away from a country he has lived in for years and where his friends are – and how it would not only have been a big move for him but a life-changing one, too.
I look at that decision to move and feel his drive and ambition. He must have really wanted the challenge and to show he could succeed in such a difficult league.
Seeing him in the top three of the goalscorers in the French league just showed what a talented player we were signing and what he was going to bring to our club – excitement, belief, joy.
But for now, all we can do is hope for the best possible outcome – that Emiliano Sala and the pilot are both well and that they will somehow both be found.
