George Best: RIP and Obituary

[Dan79]

Hi yeah so sad about George he was a legend but had far too short a playing career and unfortunately too short a life aswell...
Very sad...

[Mr T.]

It'll come as no shock to most that I have not even the meagerest interest in Association Football, nor its players.....but Best was an exception to that rule.

I never got to see him play (no interest at that age), but well remember my eldest brother coming home from a Man U match raving about how Best'd ran rings round a collective defence of 5 or 6 players, stopped, went back, did it again, and then scored, all on his jack. Gotta respect talent like that.

What came after his footy playing days ended, both for him and those around him, was lamentable for the towering talent he had so obviously been. But then again, let he who is without sin...

For the joy you bought to anyone who saw or remembers you George, may you rest easy. For you the struggle is over.

RIP.

[Paul Beal]

I heard a great quote from George Best on the radio this morning

Originally Posted by George Best

I gave up booze and women in 1969.... they were the worst 20 minutes of my life

RIP

Paul

[Mick F]

Another great quote.

"I spent most of my money on booze, birds, and fast cars. I just squandered the rest."

RIP George.

[aclivity]

Originally Posted by Ron Mahoney

Did anyone else get that ironic feeling as George's Doctors announced his dying hours on the day we get 24hr drinking!

not funny - tragic.

Hopefully the media frenzy will now stop.

[royplumber]

RIP george and a prayer for the family.

[intothebigblue]

Sad I guess but I'll always remember him on the Mrs Merton Show (forgive me, I can't recall exact wife but she was a stewardess)

Mrs. M: So tell me George, what attracted you to your ?nd wife, apart from the duty free opportunities?

[resting rifleman]

one of my early adventures (age 14) was the first "unacompanied by a parent" trip to a first division match (saints v man u) train ride with a bunch from our street, early through the turnstiles and right on the halfway line, out come the teams to check out the pitch, charlton, law, and the man himself well ,somebody said i dare you to get his autograph! and that was it ! red mist of challenge and a one boy pitch invasion! i was awestruck! that he actualy had the decency to sign my program and pass a few words of encouragement to me and gave the policeman who had hold of the scruff of my neck (twat) "the word" and let me scamper off back to the lads!
THANKS MR BEST! YOU GAVE US JOY.

[Mr T.]

George Best
(Filed: 26/11/2005)

George Best, who died yesterday aged 59, was the outstanding British footballer of any generation; the mercurial Manchester United and Northern Ireland forward possessed a genius that bears comparison only with the trio of modern masters, Pele, Johann Cruyff and Diego Maradona.

The originality of Best's play was breathtaking, encompassing a repertoire of feints and swerves, sudden stops and demoralising spurts which left opponents slack-jawed and bewildered. He reacted to scoring chances with a deadliness that made goalkeepers dread him. His skill was the epitome of natural, intuitive talent; he made it seem easy. It was Best's tragedy that he ultimately became as famous for his unsuccessful attempts to conquer his alcoholism as for his exploits on the football field.

Despite his slight frame, he had tremendous physical strength and resilience, along with an almost unnatural elasticity of limb and torso which led the midfield player Paddy Crerand, Best's Manchester United team-mate, to declare that he gave opponents "twisted blood".

Along with this - no small factor in the course that his career took - were Best's striking good looks. With vivid blue eyes set wide in a dark, mischievous face framed by luxuriant black hair, he possessed a physical grace and attractiveness which made him the first British sportsman to be accorded pop star status.

Throughout the Sixties his photograph was as likely to be seen in the music press as on the sports pages. He became an icon, his irresistible combination of devil-may-care rebelliousness and effortless flair ensuring that there was never a shortage of beautiful girls more than willing to accompany him on the late nights which came to overshadow his career.

Though never vain, Best knew the price he paid: "If I had been born ugly," he once said, "you would never have heard of Pele."

In the Sixties Manchester United - the Red Devils - played with a Best-inspired Continental flair, winning the League Championship twice and the European Cup; they became the most stylish and passionately supported team in Britain.

But in the Seventies, playing for a creaking United side that repeatedly failed to fulfil its promise, and representing a country too weak to appear in the World Cup, Best became disillusioned. His career ended prematurely and controversially, and his behaviour became increasingly erratic.

If, subsequently, his many short-lived comebacks and highly publicised personal problems saddened his admirers, they could never diminish the memories of the peerless, often breathtaking, quality of his football. It is in those memories that his legend resides.

George Best was born on May 22 1946 in Belfast. His father was an iron-turner in the Harland and Wolff shipyard. He was brought up on the sprawling Cregagh estate and educated, briefly, at Grosvenor High School and Lisnasharragh Intermediate. His schooldays were memorable only for his extended truancy and his obsession with football, for which he displayed a startling precocity.

Best was spotted by the veteran Manchester United scout, Bob Bishop, while playing for Cregagh Boys Club the week after he had qualified to become a printer's apprentice. Although the boy was small for his age, Bishop had no doubts. He sent a telegram to Sir Matt Busby the same day stating simply: "I have found a genius."

Best attended a two-week trial at Old Trafford in 1961. Homesick and uncertain, he insisted on returning home after two days, but was coaxed back to United by the vertiginously impressed Busby. From the outset Best trained obsessively, and he glittered in his performances for the Youth team.

On his 17th birthday he turned professional and four months later, in September 1963, he made his debut against West Bromwich Albion. In its report, the Manchester Evening News wrote glowingly of his "natural talent" and "style". Best next played after Christmas, against Burnley, who the previous week had thrashed United 5-1. This time the scores were reversed, Best having scored the first goal.

His impact was thus immediate. Inspired by playing in arguably the most exciting team England has ever produced, a side that included such diverse talents as Bobby Charlton, Denis Law, Nobby Stiles and Paddy Crerand, Best's form and confidence rarely faltered. In 1965 they won the Championship; they reached the semi-final of the European Cup the following year, having thrashed the mighty Benfica 5-1 in the quarter-final; and in 1967 won the League title again. Best was at his peak, a star among stars, his extraordinary pace, vision, balance, courage and ball control combining in perfect harmony.

For six consecutive seasons he was the leading goalscorer, winning both the Footballer of the Year and European Footballer of the Year awards before he was 22.

For Manchester United, winning the European Cup was more than an ambition; it was a crusade, underwritten by the deaths of the first generation of "Busby Babes" in the Munich air disaster of 1958. For Busby, the manager, and Bobby Charlton, the captain, both of whom had been injured at Munich, no other triumph could exorcise the past. In 1968 they fulfilled their dream, beating Benfica 4-1 in the final at Wembley.

Best, who scored in every round, including the final, had a transcendent game, his sublime contribution confirming his genius.

If Best reached his apogee as a player in the late Sixties, off the field his life was becoming more confused. The object of unprecedented idolatry, his photograph appeared as regularly in mainstream magazines as in the football press, and he was even nicknamed "the Fifth Beatle". The spotlight upon him became intense, his every movement elevated to front-page news. The pressure was unparalleled for a 22-year-old.

In search of privacy, he moved out of his digs into a futuristic house of his own design, only to find it besieged by sightseers, causing him to become virtually a prisoner in his own home. An ill-advised, unnatural businessman, he also opened a succession of bars and boutiques without success.

After the European Cup victory, the great United side began to disintegrate. Best maintained that Sir Matt Busby, the architect of its golden age, was also the progenitor of the club's downfall by his unwillingness to drop ageing players and acquire new talent.

Between 1964 and 1966 he bought only one player, the goalkeeper Alex Stepney. Then Busby retired, an impossible act to follow, and in the following two years United employed four managers, Wilf McGuinness, Frank O'Farrell, Busby again and Tommy Docherty.

Lacking the paternal guidance of Busby, Best's behaviour became increasingly unpredictable. Whilst the pressures on him remained intense, both on and off the field, he no longer found release in playing in a side that had lost its stamp of greatness. As the principals of the Sixties success aged and retired, the replacements, Best considered, were unworthy of United's colours. This frustrated him and his behaviour deteriorated. On the field he was being booked, sent off and suspended. He returned, memorably, from one such suspension to score six goals in an FA Cup tie against Northampton Town, his genius undiminished. Off the pitch he began to drink heavily, miss training sessions and disappear from the club to spend solitary hours in the bars of Spain, attempting to rationalise his life and come to terms with the monster of his publicity.

The procession of managers attempted to accommodate him, without necessarily being able to understand him or the extent of his problems. He was, after all, their greatest asset.

He would return from his drinking binges, his lost weekends with actresses, his six-month sabbaticals, determined to start afresh. He would train harder than ever and never gave less than his best in matches. But it could not last. He was dropped by Docherty for missing training, and both parties had had enough; Best walked out of Old Trafford, never to return as a player. He was 28.

Bored and depressed, Best frittered away his time and talent in a mindless round of womanising and drinking. In 1976 he joined other ageing stars, such as Pele and Franz Beckenbauer, playing in the North American League, first for the Los Angeles Aztecs and subsequently for San Jose. He appreciated the anonymity of life in California, but it was an empty stage for his gifts. In this listless state he met and married Angie MacDonald James, but the union foundered on his alcoholism and infidelity. They separated soon after he was hospitalised for his addiction.

After returning to Britain, Best had lucrative spells playing for Fulham, Hibernian and Stockport County. But, given the relative poverty of his colleagues' abilities, he found the experiences profoundly unsatisfying.
So, too, did his public: his weight had increased, his pace declined and, for all the flashes of inspiration, the prevailing sense was one of sadness, of time passed.

After his final retirement, Best settled at Chelsea and, between periods lost to his demon addiction and spells of treatment for it, he carved a successful career as a football pundit and the author of multiple autobiographies.

Never far from the headlines, whether for bankruptcy or his imprisonment on a drunk driving and assault charge, Best occasionally appeared, in spite of becoming Britain's most celebrated alcoholic, to be increasingly at peace with himself.

If George Best's career is often cited as the most spectacular rise and fall in the history of British sport, and if he made the headlines as often for his activities off the field as on it, these facts would not obscure his true legacy. The first footballing superstar, Best could perform with a flair and vision that could render the undreamt commonplace.

In 2002 he was fortunate enough to be offered a liver transplant, which was a success. It did not, however, prevent him from continuing to drink, and last month he was admitted to the Cromwell hospital in west London in a serious condition.

George Best married Angela MacDonald James in 1978; they had a son, Calum. He married secondly, in 1995, Alex Pursey, a former air hostess. They divorced in 2004.

[Beardy]

Originally Posted by nickb

I'm old enough to remember George Best as a player in his prime and had the great fortune to see him play live once when my old man took me up to Molyneaux to see Wolves play Man Utd.

Spookeee. I saw him play live once as well. My dad took me to Old
Trafford to see Man Utd play..... Wolves