Former West Ham United and Fulham midfielder Papa Bouba Diop has passed away.
It has been confirmed that Diop died today, aged 42, following a long battle with illness.
Diop was a favourite at Fulham, representing the club between 2004 and 2007, making more than 70 league appearances after arriving from Lens, eventually departing for Portsmouth.
He later joined AEK Athens before returning to England to join West Ham, playing 16 times in the league before brief spell with Birmingham City.
Beyond his club efforts, Diop will be remembered as one of the heroes of Senegal's 2002 World Cup campaign when he and his country made the quarter-finals, eventually bowing out to Turkey.
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Diop made 63 appearances for Senegal in all, scoring 11 times, and that included his nation's first goal at the 2002 World Cup, a treasured moment for many in the African country.
During his time at West Ham, Diop was promoted as part of the play-off-winning side of 2012 and that wasn't the only honour of his career.
He also won the FA Cup with Portsmouth in 2008, coming off the bench with 12 minutes to go in their 1-0 win over Cardiff City in the final.
That FA Cup winners' medal added to a Swiss Super League title he won in 2001 with the Zurich Grasshoppers, and he picked up an African Cup of Nations runner-up medal a year later with Senegal.
During his playing career, the 6ft5" Diop was nicknamed 'The Wardrobe' due to his stature, with Manchester United legend Paul Scholes once naming him as one of his trickiest opponents.
"There's one more that people won't think of," Scholes once recalled on BBC Radio. "We used to play against Portsmouth. Do you remember Papa Bouba Diop? Big, massive. They used to call him The Wardrobe!
"You get involved physically with him and you're wasting your time.
"I always found him awkward to play against. He wasn't a Vieira, of course he wasn't, but he still had talent.
"As far as players being awkward to play against. I always found him a nuisance."
Diop passed away in France, the country against which he scored that famous World Cup goal in 2002.
