Sports Seven Famous Sports Personalities who died in 2014

Deaths are inevitable and when they come knocking at the door, hardly can any one resist them from gaining entrance.

Like people will say, it is the works one was able to leave on the footprints of time that lives on even after the person must have gone to the world beyond.

Some notable sports personalities passed on this year, while some died peacefully in a ripe old age, others died while battling one ailment or the other.

In some other instances, famous sports names were grieviously murdered in their young age.

So below we chronicle some of the notable names who died in 2014


*Eusebio da Silva Ferreira (football)
Perhaps the first notable sports person to pass in 2014, the great Eusebio died at his home on 5 January following a heart failure.

Born in Mozambique, he went on to become a Portuguese striker, scoring a total of 790 career goals: 749 goals in 745 matches at club level and 41 goals for Portugal.

He scored nine goals and received the Bronze Ball award at the 1966 World Cup tournament, leading Portugal to third place.

Eusebio won the Ballon d'Or award for European footballer of the year in 1965.

He died at the age of 71.



*Alfredo Di Stefano (football)
The only player to play for three countries: Argentina, Colombia and Spain, Di Stefano was truly a great player.

Di Stéfano was moved to intensive care unit in the Gregorio Marañón hospital in Madrid, where he died on 7 July 2014 following a heart attack.

He was widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time to have played the game.

He is currently the fifth highest scorer in the Spanish La Liga and Real Madrid's second highest league goalscorer of all time, with 216 goals in 282 league matches.

He died at the age of 88.



*Malcolm Glazer (Club owner)
Malcom Glazer is known mainly for his ownership of big sports brands across the globe.

Glazer acquired ownership of Premier League side, Manchester United and also Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the NFL.

He is believed to have had been in poor health since suffering two strokes in April 2006 and died 29 May 2014.

He died at the age of 85.



*Elena Baltacha (Tennis)
Elena Baltacha was a former British tennis player who died on 5 May 2014 after losing her fight to cancer.

She won eleven ITF singles titles and four ITF doubles titles in her career.

Baltacha was diagnosed with liver cancer in January 2014, just a few weeks after her marriage to tennis coach Nino Severino.

She died at the age of 30


*The Ultimate Warrior( WWE)
Real name James Hellwig, he was a former WWE member before he retired.

Anybody who is a fan of Wrestling and watched it in the 90's would know of his exploits in the ring.

He was a recent inductee into the WWE Hall of Fame, following his achievements at the Wrestlemania.

The Ultimate Warrior died on 9 April 2014 at the age of 54.


*Jimmy Ellis (Boxer)
Known for his acquaintance with the great Muhammad Ali, Ellis was his sparring partner during his hey-days.

He went on to become a heavyweight boxing champion just like Muhammad Ali.

He died from conditions related to Alzheimer's disease and dementia at the age of 74.


*Senzo Meyiwa (football)
The world was jolted at the news of South African skipper and goalkeeper being shot dead in October.

South Africa police reported that two men entered a house in the Vosloorus township, in which Meyiwa was shot in the presence of his girlfriend Kelly Khumalo, following an altercation, while one man waited outside.

He was the captain of the Bafana Bafana and would have led them to the African Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea.

He died at the age of 27.


Credit: Some references were sourced from Wikipedia
Senzo Meyiwa.jpg
 
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