Rabiot donates £21K as football stars unite to kickstart search for Sala

Adrien Rabiot has pledged more than £21,000 as footballers across the world united to help fund another search for missing Argentine striker Emiliano Sala.

Sala disappeared on Monday night, along with pilot Dave Ibbotson, while travelling back from Nantes in western France to Cardiff, where he had just sealed a £15million record transfer.

Following an extensive search which saw rescue teams scour the English channel for three days, Guernsey police search and rescue called off proceedings after releasing a statement admitting the likelihood of survival for the pair was all but nonexistent.

The family of Sala immediately pleaded for efforts to continue, along with the player's former club FC Nantes, who issued a personal request to Guernsey police via social media.

Since then, a gofundme page has been set up to raise funds in order to get air and water crews back out to sea, and figures from the footballing world along with supporters have rallied to the cause.

The cash appeal was launched by Sport Cover, the name of Emiliano's agent Meissa N'Diaye's Paris-based football agency.

Among donations on the page was a €25,000 (£21,600) offering made by Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Rabiot.

Several other footballers, including Arsenal captain Laurent Koscielny and Manchester City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan also donated large sums to boost the ever-growing total.

Sala's former manager at Nantes, Vahid Halilhodzic, personally pledged €2,000 (£1,727) while fellow Argentine footballer Lucas Ocampos, of Monaco, made several donations on the page totalling over £6,000.

A further €1,000 donation was made under the name of Kalidou Koulibaly, who plays as a central defender for Italian giants Napoli.

More footballers from the French football league also stepped up to the plate, with Lyon goalkeeper Anthony Lopes putting up €1,000 and PSG youngster Thilo Kehrer adding the same total.

The funding page, which has only been in motion less than a day, is well on course to hit its €300,000 target.

Fans are desperate to see a search restarted, with many anonymous donations in excess of €2,000 appearing on the page.

On Saturday, FA Cup fixtures got under way with teams holding a minute of silence for Sala and Ibbotson, before playing with black armbands.

Upon hearing of this, however, the Sala family kindly asked the Football Association if teams could forgo the bands, as their son has not been confirmed dead and lingering hope still remains that he could be found.