Leading French sports newspaper L'Equipe is mourning the 'disappearance of a warrior' after a plane carrying Cardiff's new striker Emiliano Sala went missing over the English channel on Monday night.
A desperate search for any sign of debris will resume at sunrise on Wednesday morning, with the players former team-mates at Nantes suffering an 'unbearable wait'.
The front page of the newspaper on Wednesday morning carries a single image of the Nantes-turned-Cardiff striker applauding the French fans before his £15million move to south Wales.
Alongside the picture, the situation is explained: 'The private plane which Emiliano Sala, twenty-eight years old, had taken place to join Cardiff, his new club.
'In Nantes, the wait has been unbearable for the team-mates and supporters of a striker loved for his fighting qualities.'
A day-long search for any signs of the wreckage was called off at 5pm on Tuesday, but was set to resume at sunrise on Wednesday.
Late on Tuesday, it emerged that Sala sent haunting voice messages to friends shortly before his plane was lost over the English Channel.
The player is missing presumed dead after his flight went off radar, north of Alderney at Les Casquets at 8.23pm on Monday, just an hour after taking off from Nantes Atlantique airport.
The single engine Piper PA-46 Malibu plane was bound for Cardiff. On Tuesday night Argentinian website Ole.com posted the audio messages which it claimed were sent to a WhatsApp group of fellow players and friends.
He says: 'Hello, little brothers, how are you crazy people? Brother, I'm really tired, I was here in Nantes doing things, things, things, things and things, and it never stops, it never stops, it never stops.
'I'm here on a plane that looks like it's about to fall apart, and I'm going to Cardiff, crazy, tomorrow we already start, and in the afternoon we start training, boys, in my new team.'
He later sent another message saying: 'How are you guys, all good? If you do not have any more news from in an hour and a half, I don't know if they need to send someone to find me... I am getting scared!'
Sala had been dropped at the airport by his friend, Nantes defender Nicolas Pallois, and before boarding the plane had confided that he was concerned about the flight.
The 28-year-old striker had travelled in the same plane from Cardiff back to France on Sunday and complained about that flight being 'bumpy'.