The footballer Emiliano Sala was put under pressure to complete his multimillion-pound transfer to the Premier League before he died in a plane crash as he headed to his new club, an inquest jury has been told.
Sala’s mother, Mercedes Taffarel, said the weeks before the private plane he was in crashed into the Channel as he travelled from Nantes in France to join Cardiff City seemed “very intense”.
“Cardiff put on a lot of pressure on him to complete the sale quickly, but Nantes asked for more money and Emi felt in the middle of the dispute,” she said. “Emi was in some doubt to go ahead with the move. Finally, the sale was agreed, not because of his performances as a player at Nantes, which were very good, but because Nantes needed the money.”
The Argentina-born striker was joining the then Premier League club from the French Ligue 1 side Nantes in a £15m deal.
Dorset coroner’s court heard that the 28-year-old died when the plane crashed close to Guernsey on 21 January 2019. The body of the pilot, David Ibbotson, has never been found.
On the first day of the inquest, Sala’s mother told the court that her son’s dream since childhood in Argentina had been to become a professional footballer. When she first took him to play, the family could not afford to buy him football boots so he trained in trainers, but he loved the game and thrived.
In a written statement, Taffarel said his goalscoring exploits in France led to calls for him to be called up to Argentina’s national team.
“He appreciated the Nantes club and the fans very much,” she said. “An offer came in from Cardiff City in December 2018. It is true to say that Emi was very happy when he eventually accepted the idea of the move as he had the chance to play in the Premier League.
“He felt it was the right time to move clubs and to another league. It seemed to him that the Nantes management was also pushing his exit from the club because they were going through some financial problems. Emi’s transfer was the most expensive in history of the club and that also helped to push forward his transfer, even though the team coach didn’t want him to leave the club.”
Taffarel said she spoke to her son regularly, and when she did not hear from him on the day of the flight she assumed he had gone to bed early after arriving in Wales.
The following day she learned that the plane was missing. Relatives travelled to Guernsey. “In the cold weather we walked on those islands calling his name, hoping to hear from him,” she said.
Taffarel spoke of the family’s trauma when the official search was eventually called off. “It was extremely distressing. We didn’t hesitate to hire a private team to continue.” The plane was located with Sala’s body inside.
She said: “No one can bring Emi back to us, but we ask for justice so that Emi can rest in peace and give us a little bit of peace of mind knowing that we did everything we could so similar deaths are prevented in the future.”
The inquest, which is taking place at the town hall in Bournemouth, is due to last about five weeks.
