A body pulled out of a plane wreckage on the seabed has been identified as soccer player Emiliano Sala.

The single engine aircraft crashed into the English Channel on 21st January.

On board were the Argentina-born, Cardiff City player and pilot David Ibbotson.

The remnants of the Piper Malibu plane were found on Sunday (February 3) thanks to a privately-funded underwater search.

And the body was recovered on Wednesday (February 6).

28-year-old Sala was flying from his previous club Nantes in western France to Wales to make his debut for the Premier League team.

Sala had agreed to join relegation-threatened Cardiff for a club-record fee of just under 20 million dollars.

The plane was cruising at 5,000 feet when the pilot asked to drop lower before losing radar contact.

An Argentine newspaper last month published a voice message that Sala apparently sent to friends while in the air.

"We're up in the plane and it seems it's about to crash," said the message, which the paper claimed was verified by Sala's father.

"If you have not heard anything from me in an hour and a half, I don't know if they're going to send someone to find me, because, you know, they're not going to be able to," the message said.

"Dad.

I'm really scared." Bad weather has meant the wreckage hasn't been recovered.

The body of the pilot has not been found and an investigation into the crash is ongoing.