From Liverpool star Diogo Jota to heavyweight great George Foreman, 2025 saw the world of sport mourn legends across eras and continents. Here's a look at sporting figures we lost this year.
Footballers Diogo Jota and Denis Law, former heavyweight champion George Foreman and cricketer Robin Smith were among the sports stars who died in 2025. Here is AFP's review of the sporting figures we lost this year:
FOOTBALL
DIOGO JOTA died on July 3 aged 28 in a car crash in Spain.
The Liverpool forward was killed in the accident alongside his 25-year-old brother Andre Silva just days after he married Rute Cardoso, the mother of his three children.
Jurgen Klopp, who brought the Portuguese international to Liverpool in 2020, said he was "heartbroken" at the death of his "great friend".
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Capped 49 times by Portugal, Jota moved to Liverpool from Wolves for £45 million ($62 million).
His goalscoring prowess quickly made him a fans' favourite, as he netted 65 times for the Reds in five years and lifted the League Cup and FA Cup in the 2021/22 season.
Jota scored nine goals in all competitions last season as Liverpool cruised to their record-equalling 20th English league title.
DENIS LAW died on January 17 of Alzheimer's disease & vascular dementia aged 84.
Law was part of Matt Busby's legendary Manchester United side. He, Bobby Charlton and George Best became known as the "Holy Trinity" as United bestrode domestic and European football in the 1960s, peaking with the 1968 European Cup triumph.
The charismatic Scot missed the final as he was injured but his nine goals played a major part in getting United there.
He also had two spells at Manchester City and famously declined to celebrate scoring a goal for his new club that all but condemned United to relegation in 1974.
"He was a great Scotsman. Cantankerous, a troublemaker and he loved beating England," said former United manager Alex Ferguson.
LEO BEENHAKKER died on April 10 aged 82.
Beenhakker was a hard-as-nails Dutch football coach who never held back whenever his credibility was questioned, as he had never played professional football owing to injury.
"You don't have to have been a cow to be a milkman," was one of his retorts.
He remains the only coach to have guided bitter rivals Ajax (1980 and 1990) and Feyenoord (1999) to the Dutch league title and shone in Spain by taking Real Madrid to three successive La Liga crowns from 1987 to 1989.
AHMED FARAS died on July 16 following a long illness aged 78.
Still the all-time leading scorer for Morocco with 36 goals, he was African footballer of the year in 1975.
He skippered Morocco from 1971 to 1979 and played a pivotal role in Morocco's march to the 1976 Africa Cup of Nations title.
King Mohammed VI paid tribute to "one of the great icons of Moroccan football".
DORIS FITSCHEN died on March 15 following a long illness aged 56.
One of the pathfinders in women's football, she was capped 144 times for Germany, winning the European title on four occasions and an Olympic bronze medal in the 2000 Sydney Games.
The midfielder was general manager of the German team that won gold in the 2016 Rio Games.
JOHN ROBERTSON died on December 25 aged 72.
Dubbed "a Picasso of our game" by Nottingham Forest manager Brian Clough, the wily Scottish winger was a key member of the side that won back to back European Cups.
He scored the only goal in the 1980 win over Hamburg. A year earlier, playing despite the death of his brother Hughie in a car accident just days before, Robertson's cross set up Trevor Francis to head home against Malmo.
Capped 28 times -- he went to the 1978 and 1982 World Cup finals -- Robertson was later to be a successful assistant coach to former Forest team-mate Martin O'Neill, particularly at Celtic.
NIKITA SIMONYAN died on November 23 aged 99.
Following Charles Coste's demise he became the oldest surviving Olympic gold medallist, the Soviet Union having won at the 1956 Melbourne Games.
He went on to score the first goal for the Soviet Union in their maiden World Cup appearance in 1958.
However, being knocked out in the quarter-finals was dimly viewed by the Soviet leaders.
"I actually thought we'd played very well, but the (Communist) Party considered our performance a failure. Well, that was the system back then," he told the BBC.
SULEIMAN AL-OBEID died on August 6 aged 41.
Suleiman al-Obeid, known as the "Palestinian Pele", was killed by Israeli gunfire in the Gaza Strip while waiting to collect humanitarian aid, the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) said.
Liverpool and Egypt star Mohamed Salah criticised Europe's football governing body UEFA for posting a tribute that did not mention how the former international died.
An ex-star of the Khadamat Al-Shati club in Gaza, Obeid played 24 times for team Palestine.
GOLF
FUZZY ZOELLER died on November 27 aged 74.
The American was a two-time major winner who in 1979 became the first golfer since 1935 to win the Masters at his first attempt.
The wise-cracking Zoeller added the 1984 US Open to his laurels but in 1997 his attempt at humour landed him in trouble when discussing the then 21-year-old Tiger Woods.
"Tell him not to serve fried chicken next year ...or collard greens or whatever they serve," he said, in a reference to the Masters champions' dinner.
Zoeller apologised, but he received death threats for years and in 2008 admitted it was "the worst thing I've gone through in my entire life."
GYMNASTICS
AGNES KELETI died on January 2 of pneumonia aged 103.
A quintuple Olympic gold medallist spread over two Games -- Helsinki in 1952 and Melbourne in 1956 -- she did not return to Hungary after the latter when the Soviet Union invaded her country.
Her life story, including surviving the Holocaust -- her father was murdered in a death camp but she escaped deportation having obtained fake documents -- reads like a Hollywood film script, with her feisty spirit never breaking in the face of adversity.
"It was worth doing something well in life, considering the attention I have received, I get the shivers when I see all the articles written about me," she told AFP in 2020, weeks before her 100th birthday.
HORSE RACING
The AGA KHAN IV died on February 4 aged 88.
The Swiss-born philanthropist was bequeathed the title of Aga Khan aged 20 by his grandfather and became one of the most influential owner/breeders. Among his many star charges was the unbeaten Zarkava, who won the 2008 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, Europe's most prestigious race.
The Aga Khan -- who competed for Britain in alpine skiing at the 1964 Winter Olympics -- suffered a hammer blow when his superstar thoroughbred Shergar was kidnapped from his Irish stud in 1983.
The breeder's death denied him witnessing a superb season for the Aga Khan Studs with the highlight Daryz winning the Arc.
"Dad would be over the moon every time he won the Arc, now I know what that feels like," said his daughter Princess Zahra Khan.
RON TURCOTTE died on August 22 aged 84
The Canadian guided Secretariat on an electrifying Triple Crown run in 1973 -- a sweep that ended a Triple Crown drought stretching back to Citation's treble in 1948.
Turcotte and Secretariat -- or 'Big Red' as he was known -- set the pulses racing especially the astonishing 31-length romp in the Belmont Stakes.
Turcotte won 3,032 races in a career that ended in 1978, when he suffered injuries in a race fall that left him paralysed from the waist down.
MOTOR SPORT
EDDIE JORDAN died on March 20 aged 76 of prostate cancer.
The dynamic Irishman was a legend in his field and although he never drove in Formula One, he did race in F2, F3 and Formula Atlantic, as well as 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1981.
Ten years later he finally made it to F1 with his Jordan Grand Prix team and gave Michael Schumacher his debut in the elite in 1991.
"He always knew how to make people smile, remaining genuine and brilliant at all times," said Stefano Domenicali, chief executive of Formula One Group.
RUGBY, UNION
ROLAND BERTRANNE died on October 2 from complications relating to Alzheimers aged 75.
Nicknamed "the little furious bull", the centre remains the France player with the most consecutive Test appearances, with 46, and racked up 66 points in his 69 appearances for his country between 1971 and 1981.
Less celebrated than teammates such as Jean-Pierre Rives, he was still a pivotal member of the historic 1977 Five Nations Grand Slam side -- the only time the French have achieved the feat using the same 15 players in all four matches.
PETER BROWN died on January 12 aged 83 following a long illness.
Known as "the man on the coat hanger" owing to his extremely square shoulders he captained Scotland in 10 of his 27 Tests (1964-73) -- which included three victories over the 'Auld Enemy' England.
A highly effective kicker, he remains his country's leading points scorer for a forward with 66, something he immortalised on his business card.
IAN MCLAUCHLAN died on April 14 aged 83.
He won the first of his 43 Scotland caps in his mid 20s but then became an indispensable member of the front row and was 37 when he made his final Test appearance.
He captained his country in 19 Tests -- winning 10 and showed his toughness by leading out his side in the 1973 Calcutta Cup match against England a fortnight after breaking a bone in his leg.
He was one of only five players to feature in all eight Test matches for the British and Irish Lions on their victorious tours to New Zealand in 1971 and South Africa in 1974.
STU WILSON died on June 8 aged 70.
A scintillating wing, he was a standout player for New Zealand from 1976-83, scoring 19 tries in his 34 Tests.
The high point of his career was being in the All Blacks side that swept all four home nations aside on their 1979 northern hemisphere tour.
Wilson retired in 1984 because under the archaic amateur rules he would have been barred from playing as he profited from a book about himself and fellow wing Bernie Fraser.
ALEX WYLLIE died on March 22 aged 80 of cancer.
A fearsome-looking flanker nicknamed "Grizz", he played 11 Tests for the All Blacks, captaining them on three occasions.
He was a highly-regarded coach, first with Canterbury then was pivotal as assistant coach when the All Blacks won the inaugural World Cup in 1987.
Less happily, he co-coached the defending champions at the 1991 edition and resigned after they bowed out in the semi-finals to eventual champions Australia.
BOXING
GEORGE FOREMAN died on March 21 aged 76.
Foreman was the last of the great quartet of heavyweights with Muhammad Ali, Ken Norton and 'Smokin' Joe' Frazier that produced memorable bouts in the 1970s.
Foreman's talent was evident early on when winning Olympic gold in 1968.
He won the heayweight title in 1973, inflicting Frazier's first defeat but was to be dethroned by Ali a year later in the epic "Rumble in the Jungle" in then Zaire.
While Ali was the people's favourite, Foreman was perceived as sullen and unlikeable.
However, 20 years later he had reinvented himself as a jocular personality and aged 45 astonishingly was once again crowned heavyweight world champion, taking down Michael Moorer, 19 years his junior.
"You want to leave something; you really do. I mean, in the end, statues and all those things, that doesn't mean anything," said Foreman. "Leave something that we're all going to benefit from."
JOE BUGNER died on September 1 aged 75.
The nearly man of a great era of heavyweight boxers, Bugner went the distance on two occasions with Muhammad Ali and once against Joe Frazier.
While a world title eluded him he was crowned European and British champion when he defeated ageing national treasure Henry Cooper in 1971.
Bugner, who was a young boy when his parents fled Hungary after the Soviet Union invaded in 1956, later moved to Australia.
In between a film career -- including starring in "Street Fighter" with Jean-Claude Van Damme -- there were a couple of comebacks but he ended his days in a care home suffering from dementia.
Bugner felt he never received the recognition he merited.
"When I beat Henry Cooper I was no longer British, I was a Hungarian refugee and that was just ridiculous," he said.
RICKY HATTON took his own life on September 14 aged 46.
The popular English boxer's funeral attracted the likes of Tyson Fury and Liam Gallagher of Oasis and thousands lined the route in his home town of Manchester.
Hatton was a popular, larger-than-life character who unified the light-welterweight division and also won a world welterweight title.
Hatton, who won 45 of his 48 professional bouts, admitted he struggled with drinking and drugs.
"People say, 'We remember the good times.' Well I remember the bad times," Hatton told The Times in 2012.
SWIMMING
MAYUMI NARITA died on September 5 aged 55 of cancer.
Japan's "Queen of the Water" won 15 Paralympics gold medals -- including six at the 2000 Sydney Games and set five world records to boot in Australia.
She is Japan's most-successful Paralympian and the fifth most decorated female athlete in Paralympic history across all sports.
TENNIS
ANGELA MORTIMER-BARRETT died on August 25 aged 93.
She battled hard to get to the top, and for want of money once spent the night at London's Paddington Station on the way back from a tournament.
Mortimer-Barrett came out on top in an all-British women's Wimbledon final in 1961 against Christine Truman, who at 20 was nine years her junior.
The partially-deaf Mortimer-Barrett had prior to that also won the French (1955) and Australian (1958) titles.
FRED STOLLE died on March 5 aged 86 of cancer.
He may have won two Grand Slam titles French but it is what came before that the resilient Australian is probably best known for.
Known as "Fiery", he is still the only man to have lost his first five Grand Slam singles finals -- four of them to compatriot Roy Emerson in a golden era for Australian tennis.
Emerson was to beat him in one more Grand Slam final, Wimbledon, in 1965, sandwiched in between Stolle getting the better of another two Australians, Tony Roche in that year's French final, and John Newcombe at the 1966 US Championships.
CRICKET
HAROLD 'DICKIE' BIRD died on September 22 aged 92.
One of the best-known umpires of his generation, he stood in 66 Tests between 1973 and 1996 as well as 69 men's one-day internationals, including three World Cup finals.
Bird had a modest playing career for Yorkshire and Leicestershire but made his name as an international umpire, wearing his trademark white cap.
He was given a guard of honour at Lord's by England and India players before his final Test.
Yorkshire and England batting legend Geoffrey Boycott, who knew Bird from the age of 15, described him as "comic and lovable" and "daft as a brush".
BOB COWPER died on May 11 aged 84 of cancer
He was the only Australian batsman to have made a triple century (307) in an Ashes Test in Australia and at over 12 hours, holds the record for the longest ever Test innings in Australia.
He was fortunate to get the chance as he had been dropped for the fourth Test of the 1965/66 series for batting too slowly, but regained his place in the fifth and final Test.
"My God! That must have been the most boring innings you've ever had to sit through," he told the crowd at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
BERNARD JULIEN died on October 4 aged 75.
A dashing West Indian all-rounder whose career encompassed the high of winning the 1975 World Cup and the low of a lifetime ban for a rebel tour of apartheid-era South Africa.
Julien suffered from the pressure of being hailed by some as the successor to the legendary Garry Sobers.
The two of them put on a West Indian record seventh wicket partnership of 155 -- in just under two hours -- at Lord's in 1973.
However, he brought the curtain down on his international career in ignominious fashion in the early 1980s when he joined West Indies rebel tours of South Africa, then considered a pariah state due to its apartheid policy, for a reported £60,000 ($80,000).
BOBBY SIMPSON died on August 16 aged 89
A former Australian cricket captain who skippered them in 39 of his 62 Tests, he then had an immensely successful spell as their first full-time coach in the 1980s.
He answered his country's call when aged 41 he returned to the national side after it lost several key players to the Kerry Packer World Series competition.
"Bob's decision to come out of retirement to successfully lead the Australian team during the advent of World Series Cricket in 1977 was a wonderful service to the game," said Cricket Australia chair Mike Baird.
ROBIN SMITH died on December 1 aged 62
Known as the "Judge", the South Africa-born batter played 62 Tests for England between 1988 and 1996. He scored 4,236 Test runs, including nine centuries, and 2,419 runs in 71 one-day internationals.
He was renowned for his fearless batting against the world's fastest bowlers, but he struggled with mental health and alcohol-related problems in retirement.
CYCLING
CHARLES COSTE died on October 29 aged 101
At the time of his death Coste was the oldest former Olympic champion -- gymnast Agnes Keleti had died in January aged 103 -- having won team track pursuit gold at the 1948 London Games.
The medals ceremony did not go according to plan, as he recounted to AFP: "They gave us our bouquets and then they told us 'there will be no Marseillaise because we can't find the record!'"
Coste was the oldest torch bearer at the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics, which he described as "one of the most beautiful moments of my long life".
FIGURE SKATING
DICK BUTTON died on January 30 aged 95.
The American was a two-time Olympic champion and a quintuple world champion. He became the first skater to successfully perform a double axel, when he won gold in the 1948 Winter Games at St Moritz.
Not content with that he upped the ante at the 1952 Olympics in Oslo when he was the first to land a triple jump.
WRESTLING
BUVAISAR SAITIEV died on March 2 aged 49 in unexplained circumstances.
The three-time Olympic freestyle champion for Russia (1996/2004/2008) and sextuple world gold medallist is widely regarded to be the greatest of all time.
Mystery surrounded his death, with a Russian wrestling official saying he died of a heart attack, while his wife maintained that he fell from a second storey window in Moscow.
ATHLETICS
GREG BELL died on January 25 aged 94.
He grew up in abject poverty, living in a chicken house until he was 12.
Encountering racism "which he detested", he joined the US Army and was crowned Olympic long jump champion in Melbourne in 1956 despite having strained a leg muscle.
"It was one of the worst performances I could have imagined," he said modestly.
After athletics, he became a dentist, working till he was 89.
THELMA HOPKINS died on January 10 aged 88.
Born in England but brought up in Northern Ireland she was at one point the high jump world record holder and won Olympic silver representing Britain in the 1956 Melbourne Games.
Also an accomplished field hockey player, she was capped 40 times by Ireland.
Mary Peters, who was to win Olympic pentathlon gold at the 1972 Games in Munich, said Hopkins was an idol of hers and she had been a "pioneer" for Northern Irish women athletes.
BASEBALL
BETSY JOCHUM died on May 31 aged 104.
A pathfinder for women's baseball, she was known as 'Sockum' Jochum and was one of the 60 original members of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, set up during World War II.
It inspired the 1992 Hollywood film starring Madonna called "A League of Their Own".
BASKETBALL
LENNY WILKENS died on November 9 aged 88.
A Hall of Famer as both a player and a coach he was a nine-time NBA All-Star and twice led the league in assists.
Wilkens coached the Seattle SuperSonics to their only NBA title in 1979. His 2,487 games coached is an NBA record.
"He influenced the lives of countless young people as well as generations of players and coaches," said NBA commissioner Adam Silver.
BIATHLON
LAURA DAHLMEIER died on July 28 aged 31 in a mountaineering accident.
The German was a seven-time world champion who at the 2018 Winter Olympics became the first woman biathlete to win both the sprint and the pursuit at the same Games.
She retired aged just 25 and turned to mountain running and mountaineering. She was killed by falling rocks while climbing at an altitude of 5,700 metres (18,700 feet) in the Karakoram range in Pakistan.
According to her wishes her body remained there.
CHESS
BORIS SPASSKY died on February 27 aged 88.
Soviet grand master who was world champion from 1969-72 and is best remembered for his epic Cold War clash with American Bobby Fischer in 1972.
Fischer had never beaten Spassky before their duel in Reykjavik and the Russian was never to reach the heights again.
He moved to France in 1976 with his third wife and became a French citizen, although he returned to Russia in 2012.
"I prefer to have good relations with my opponent. My chess suffers if I have to play a man I consider unfriendly," said Spassky.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Asianet Newsable English staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
