Emiliano Sala: Giant tribute unfurled at Nantes before Ligue 1 game with St Etienne

Sala spent four years with the French club, scoring 42 league goals in 120 games before securing a transfer to Cardiff City earlier this month

An image of Emiliano Sala is unfurled on the pitch in Nantes (Reuters)

Nantes unveiled a giant image of the missing forward Emiliano Sala on their Stade de la Beaujoire pitch ahead of their Ligue 1 meeting with St Etienne.

Sala spent four years with the French club, scoring 42 league goals in 120 games before securing a transfer to Cardiff City earlier this month, and was on his way to the Welsh capital last Monday evening when his flight disappeared from radars over Guernsey in the English Channel.

On Wednesday investigators revealed wreckage believed to be from Sala’s flight – which had one other person onboard, the pilot Dave Ibbotson – had washed up on a beach in Surtainville in northern France.

Two chair cusions found on the beach were “likely” to belong to the aircraft used by Sala to make the flight from Nantes to Cardiff, authorities said.

Last week Nantes president Waldermar Kita said: ”This is a nice boy, polite and loved by everyone, he is very respectful and courteous, I think of his family, and I hope he is somewhere. I am still hoping that it is not finished.”