The Police have said the body recovered from the wreckage of a crashed plane is Emiliano Sala.
Dorset Police confirmed the identification on Thursday night.
In a statement, the force said: “The body brought to Portland Port today, Thursday 7 February 2019, has been formally identified by HM Coroner for Dorset as that of professional footballer Emiliano Sala.
Wreckage Plane
The Piper Malibu plane, registration N264DB, was found 67 metres underwater 21 miles off the coast of Guernsey and weather conditions meant that investigations were delayed.
One body was inside the aircraft, which has now been successfully recovered and confirmed as being that of Sala.
Investigators used remotely operated vehicles were used to help pull the body out of the water "in as dignified a way as possible" despite "challenging conditions" in the recovery, the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said.
The whereabouts of Mr Ibbotson remain unclear at this time.
Officers said the families of Sala and the pilot David Ibbotson have been informed of the development and will “continue to be supported by specially-trained family liaison officers”.
Sala, 28, had just completed a club-record £15million transfer to Cardiff and had not made an appearance for the club.
He had travelled back to Nantes, his former club, to say his goodbyes to his former teammates but the plane, which was carrying Sala and pilot David Ibbotson, disappeared off the radar around 8:30pm on January 21, as the Cardiff City striker was travelling from Nantes to the Welsh capital.
The investigation to find the plane was initially called off after three days, but Sala's family raised the funds to keep the search alive, with thanks to donations from international football community.
It has been confirmed that the plane requested to descend before it lost contact with the air control staff.
The remains of the aircraft were discovered by David Mearns, known as the "Shipwreck Hunter", who discovered the aircraft within two hours of starting his search on a target area.
He told the Press Association the discovery had been so quick because the team had been looking for a static object rather than in a dynamic environment searching for survivors.
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