The body of slain Cameroonian footballer Albert Ebosse was repatriated on Thursday, accompanied by a delegation from his Algerian club.

Ebosse was killed by a missile thrown from the stands while he played for his Algerian club JS Kabylie last weekend.

A ceremony was organised at Algiers airport attended by Algerian Sports Minister Mohamed Tahmi, and friends and family of the player.

“Albert Ebosse was not only a player in our club, but also a dear son, adored and adopted by an entire region, an exemplary player on and off the pitch,” said JS Kabylie president Mohamed Cherif Hanachi.

His brother Alex, quoted by the APS agency, said that the family, who live in Douala, had “armed themselves with a lot of courage to deal with this tragic event”.

Ebosse, who was 24, was declared dead after he was rushed to a hospital at Tizi Ouzou, east of the capital Algiers, where the match took place last Saturday. He scored the lone goal for Kabylie in the home match in what turned out to be a 2-1 defeat against USM Alger, on the second day of the tournament.

Fans had started throwing objects from the stands inside the Tizi Ouzou stadium after the match as the players were returning to their changing room.

His team have said they will continue to play Ebosse’s salary to his family until his contract expires while the Algerian national federation will pay them 100,000 euros ($132,000) compensation.

Ebosse joined JS Kabylie in 2013, and was best scorer in the 2013-2014 championship.

The Algerian interior ministry ordered an investigation, but so far nothing has been revealed.