Tributes from the football world poured in after the body retrieved from the wreckage of a crashed plane in the English Channel was formally identified as Cardiff City's Argentina-born football player Emiliano Sala, British police said in a statement on Thursday.

Dorset Police said the families of Sala and the pilot David Ibbotson had been informed. "Our thoughts remain with them all", police said.

The UK's Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) had confirmed on Wednesday that an unidentified body had been passed to the Dorset Coroner , having been recovered from the stricken plane.

The news, confirmed by Dorset county police, brings to an end a dispiriting two and a half weeks since the plane carrying Sala and pilot David Ibbotson disappeared on January 21 while traveling from Nantes, France, to Cardiff City, Wales, where the Argentine was set to debut as Cardiff's record signing at almost $20 million.

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Sala was headed to Cardiff to make his debut in the English Premier League after departing the French soccer club FC Nantes.

On Saturday at Cardiff's home Premier League match against Bournemouth, the Cardiff players held up a T-shirt bearing the image of Sala, who never played a game for the club, after the team scored in the fifth minute. Dorset Police identified the body Thursday night.

There is still no word on Ibbotson, with fans praying the Lincolnshire pilot's family would soon get closure too.

Cardiff City have offered their "most heartfelt sympathies and condolences to the family of Emiliano".

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After the confirmation of Sala's death, Cardiff issued a statement saying "he and David will forever remain in our thoughts". Subsequently AAIB and privately funded search teams were deployed to the relevant area.

Earlier this week, the footballer's father, Horacio Sala, acknowledged that there was no prospect of finding his son alive.

An underwater remotely operated vehicle surveyed the seabed and confirmed an object was the missing Piper Malibu aircraft, with the registration N264DB visible in a picture of the fuselage released Monday.

"Sadly a search and rescue operation was unsuccessful in locating the plane and the two occupants".

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Sky sources say Nantes have now started legal action against Cardiff, asking for the first payment of the transfer fee, which is understood to be more than £5m.