Ligue 1 side Caen to dedicate clash with Nantes to former striker of both clubs Emiliano Sala

Caen have dedicated Wednesday night’s game against Nantes to Emiliano Sala, the former player of both clubs who died in a plane crash en route to join Cardiff.

Sala had signed for the Bluebirds in a club-record move from Nantes last month but was killed when the private plane carrying him crash-landed in the English Channel. He was 28.

His body was recovered from the wreckage last Thursday. Pilot David Ibbotson remains missing.

Sala spent the second half of the 2014-15 season on loan at Caen, scoring five times in 13 games to help keep them in Ligue 1 and earn his move to Nantes from Bordeaux.

A series of tributes are planned at the Stade Michel d’Ornano on Wednesday and Caen paid tribute to the Argentinian in an open letter published on their website on Tuesday.

It read: ‘Emi, it is hard to say goodbye to you so we start by saying ‘thank you’.

‘Wherever you are watching us from, we will try to provide the most beautiful spectacle. We will share in the pain of your Nantes team-mates – our opponents are your friends.

‘We know that for you football was a way of life so we will do all we can to pay tribute to you, to take inspiration from you.’

Players will warm up on Wednesday in T-shirts bearing the slogan ‘Play for Sala’, while Caen’s playing shirts will all carry his name.

A minute’s applause is planned for the 14th minute, in honour of Sala’s shirt number in his time with the club, while there will also be a pre-match video and tribute programme dedicated to him.

Meanwhile, Cardiff owner Vincent Tan has made a personal donation of £50,000 to the search fund for Ibbotson.

Cardiff have confirmed Tan made two separate donations of £25,000 on the GoFundMe website page set up to raise funds to continue the search for the pilot.

As of 5pm on Tuesday the page, set up three days ago, had raised £227,811 of its £300,000 target.