Pleas for the search to resume were made by the 28-year-old player's family, Argentinian football stars Lionel Messi, Diego Maradona and Sergio Aguero and the country's president Mauricio Macri.

Donations from footballers including Manchester City's Ilkay Gundogan and France World Cup winner Kylian Mbappe helped a GoFundMe page raising money for the search to reach the revised target.

A statement from the family issued on Sunday afternoon via the GoFundMe page thanked everyone for the "exceptional generosity in a drama that goes far beyond football."

The fund is set to remain open, with Sala's sister and mother, Mercedes, having arrived in Guernsey on Sunday.

American-born marine scientist and oceanographer David Mearns, based in south-east England, is leading the private search.

"This is a family that has come from Argentina with this huge shock out of nowhere and is struggling with very, very few answers about an unexplained loss," Mearns said to reporters at Guernsey Airport.

"They're looking at this as a missing person, a missing plane and until they are satisfied, that's the mode that we are in."

Mearns added: "As you know, locally the search was terminated on Thursday and that was what triggered this private search. Today, even as an expert, my frame of thinking is alongside with the family's.

"That's what I'm trying to do, but we're trying to give them the best advice that we possibly can. You have to appreciate they don't know the environment, they don't know the geography."

Football agent Willie McKay arranged for the flight to take Sala from Nantes to Cardiff, but had no involvement in selecting the plane or pilot.

McKay's son, Mark, was the acting agent for Nantes in a move which made 28-year-old Sala a club-record transfer for Cardiff.

His other son, Jack, who plays for the Bluebirds, exchanged a series of text messages with Sala, suggesting a private flight from Cardiff to Nantes, and then back to south Wales two days later.

McKay senior, who has released those messages, said a commercial flight to the French city would have involved going via Amsterdam.

After signing for Cardiff for £15million, Sala returned to Nantes to collect his belongings and say goodbye to team-mates and staff of the Ligue 1 club before heading back to the United Kingdom.

However, the plane carrying Sala disappeared over the Channel on Monday evening.

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