paris diego maradonas death last month shook the world of sport in a year which began with the tragic loss of basketball hero kobe bryant in a helicopter crashafp sport looks at some of the sporting figures who passed away in 2019maradonas death brought argentina to a standstill and caused a wave of grief in his adopted home of naples he brought joy to the southern italian city by leading unfashionable napoli to two serie a titles and the 1989 uefa cupthe passing of maradona who dragged argentina to glory at the 1986 world cup where he scored the goal of the century against england as well as the infamous hand of god goal led to three days of national mourning in his home countrybryant was killed in january alongside his 13yearold daughter in a helicopter crash outside los angeles that also took the lives of seven other peoplela lakers icon bryant was a fivetime nba champion in a career that began in 1996 straight out of a high schoolhe was a twotime olympic gold medallist helping spark the us squad to titles in 2008 and 2012rossi is a national hero in italy for firing the azzurri to world cup triumph in 1982he finished the tournament as top scorer after scoring six goals including a hattrick in a 32 win over flamboyant brazil both goals against poland in the semifinals and the opener in the final win over west germanypablito only played in spain after returning from a ban for his part in the betting scandalfrance rugby great dominici personified the fabled french flair with the oval ball scoring 25 tries in 67 tests for france including eight tries across three world cupshis second half try in the thrilling 1999 world cup semifinal win over new zealand is one of the most iconic in the history of french rugby even though les bleus were soundly beaten by australia in the finala longtime sufferer of severe depression his suspected suicide shook the rugby worldtwotime grand slam champion buxton who had jewish heritage and was refused entry to tennis clubs her entire career was a doubles partner and lifelong friend of althea gibson whose 1956 french open title was the first grand slam singles triumph by a black american playerbuxton won the womens doubles alongside gibson at both roland garros and wimbledon in 1956 the latter of which was the first all england club title to be won by a britishjewish playernkanunu was called the mandela of south african rugby became the first black head of the game in the country in 1998 and was widely respected at a time of great internal conflictstiles was described as the heart and soul of englands 1966 world cupwinning team stiles was a toughtackling midfielder and an integral part of the manchester united side who in 1968 became the first english club to win the european cuphis family claim the dementia he suffered was caused by the repeated heading of a ballmoss was widely