Iconic sports stars that passed away in 2020

In 2020, we celebrated the lives and mourned the passing of several iconic sports stars.

The death of Diego Maradona, the man who led Argentina to glory at the1986 World Cup, the darling of Naples and one of the greatest footballers of all time sparked a global outpouring of grief in November, while only two weeks later, Italy said farewell to its own World Cup hero, Paolo Rossi, who inspired their 1982 triumph.

Closer to home, English football lost three of its 1966 World Cup winning side – Jack Charlton, Nobby Stiles and Martin Peters – as well as Chelsea great Peter Bonetti (who was also in Sir Alf Ramsey’s squad) and fellow goalkeeper Ray Clemence, a star at both Liverpool and Tottenham.

Perhaps the most tragic passing was that of Kobe Bryant, the NBA Hall of Famer, who perished at the age of just 41 alongside his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, in a helicopter crash in California at the start of the year.

British disability sport lost one of its trailblazers, Margaret Maughan, who won the country’s first ever Paralympic gold medal, and tennis said goodbye to Angela Buxton, twice a doubles Grand Slam champion and a singles finalist at Wimbledon.

Stirling Moss, one of Britain’s greatest F1 drivers and perhaps the finest never to win a world title, also passed away this year, as did Peter Alliss, the ‘Voice of Golf’ for a generation.