Cardiff make club-record splash for Ligue 1 goalscorer

Cardiff City announced on Saturday evening a club-record deal for Nantes striker Emiliano Sala on a three-and-a-half-year deal running until the summer of 2022.

Neil Warnock’s side have been heavily linked with a move for Sala all month and it took some convincing for the Argentine striker to make the move to Cardiff.

Nantes’ demands also threatened to end Cardiff’s interest in the 28-year-old but the Bluebirds have parted ways with a club-record £17m feee.

The Premier League strugglers have made buying goals a priority and Sala’s arrival follows up Oumar Niasse’s loan deal from Everton.

“I’m very happy to be here,” he told the club’s official website. “It gives me great pleasure and I can’t wait to start training, meet my new teammates and get down to work.

“For me it feels special [to be the club’s record signing]. I have come here wanting to work and to help my teammates and the club. I can’t wait to get to work straight away and do everything I can.”

Warnock has been forced to play Callum Paterson in attack for most of the season and the 24-year-old signed for Cardiff as a right-back 18 months ago.

Sala has proved a consistent goalscorer in France over each of the last three seasons, netting 12 goals in each league campaign during that time.

However, this term proved Sala’s most prolific, as the Argentine averaged a goal every 114.8 minutes of action, compared to one every 252.9 minutes last season and every 213.9 minutes during the 2016/17 campaign.