Emiliano Sala's sister has written a heartbreaking poem letter to her brother, paying tribute to the Cardiff City striker after audio messages emerged where the footballer spoke of his reluctance to join the club.

Romina Sala posted the message, thought to be a poem, on her Instagram account, accompanied with a picture of the ocean.

Her post comes after a WhatApp message sent by Sala to a friend on January 6 was released on Wednesday night's L’Équipe Enquete documentary, where Sala admitted the contract was good but said it was not interesting for him from a football perspective.

She wrote: "I cannot understand how you just left without warning. You, who were the artisan of my heart and you dedicated yourself to building it with your own love.

“And it is in that silence, that I thank you for having turned me into a swan whenever I felt like the ugly duckling of my stories.

“Then, your absence becomes a permanent presence. And your absent gaze becomes the indestructible foundations of my soul.

“And your abandonment loses the selfishness of my need and transforms it into a journey ahead of our meeting.

(Image: PA)

“I have to assume that your unconditionality, can not bring you back.

“Of course I find it hard.

"But I also know that you made sure to leave me a magic wand with the best power I can have: love.

“And here I am.

"Shaking magical powders in the air. Looking inside and not outside.

“Having the certainty my life can pause for a while, but I can not go back in time.

“Because you taught me to love myself.

"And you left me with a gift, the tools to be able, in your absence, to transform myself into that swan, remembering how you used to do it.

“And it is then that I return to believe everything is capable of starting again. With love… With love.”

Former Nantes player Sala, who had agreed to join the Bluebirds in January for a club-record fee of £15million, was en route to Cardiff when the plane he was travelling in crashed into the English Channel.

Search operations were launched to find the plane, with a private search eventually locating the underwater plane wreckage more than two weeks after the light aircraft went missing.

Sala's body was recovered but pilot David Ibbotson remains unaccounted for.