All Ligue 1 and 2 games this weekend will hold a minute`s applause before kickoff in memory of former Nantes player Emiliano Sala, whose body has been retrieved from the wreckage of a crashed plane in the English Channel, the French League said on Friday.


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Argentine footballer Sala, 28, had been flying from Nantes in western France to Wales on January 21 after signing for Premier League team Cardiff City when the single-engine Piper Malibu aircraft disappeared over the sea.


Wreckage was found on Sunday following a privately-funded underwater search and a body was recovered on Wednesday and taken to southern England.


"Tonight and during the whole weekend, we will all be united in paying a last tribute to Emiliano before the matches kick off," LFP President Nathalie Boy de la Tour said in an official statement.


Meanwhile, his former club Nantes said, in a statement, that Sala would "forever be part of the legends who wrote the story of FC Nantes". 


"I can`t find the words. It`s a tragedy, I`m devastated. This is why, like may fans, I wish to honour him again by taking out the number 9 (on Nantes shirts)," president Waldemar Kita added.