George Best, Manchester United player

With Denis Law and Bobby Charlton, George Best was one of ‘The United Trinity’ of the 1960s. Probably the most naturally gifted of the three, his Manchester United career ended, sadly, when he was only twenty-seven.

George Best was born and brought up in Belfast, Northern Ireland. As a teenager, he was spotted playing for Cregagh Boys’ Club by Manchester United’s Northern Ireland scout, George Bishop. He first came to Manchester in 1961 with his friend Eric McMordie. Both were homesick in Manchester and they quickly went back to Belfast. Best’s special talents had been noticed, however, and he was soon persuaded to return.

His first game for Manchester United was at Old Trafford against West Bromwich Albion on 14 September 1963. He went on to play about half the games that season. From the following season (1964-1965) he was a regular in the side. Altogether Best made 470 appearances for Manchester United, over eleven seasons. He was an immensely talented footballer. He was quick and strong and had superb balance. He was two-footed, and could head a ball as well as shoot. He could play in any position and could go past players at will. He was one of the most naturally gifted footballers the world has seen. He helped Manchester United win two League Championships (1964-1965 and 1966-1967) and the European Cup (1967-1968). In 1967-1968 he was both the Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year and the European Footballer of the Year. Four times he was the club’s top scorer for a season scoring, altogether, 179 goals in his Manchester United career. Particularly remembered are two goals against Benfica in Lisbon in a European Cup quarter-final in 1964-1965, another against Benfica in extra-time in the European Cup Final at Wembley in 1967-1968, six in one game against Northampton Town in the FA Cup in 1969-1970, and a goal against Sheffield United at Old Trafford in 1971-1972 used for some time by the BBC as an introduction to its Match of the Day programme. Best also made thirty-seven appearances for Northern Ireland and scored nine goals.

Alongside his football, Best enjoyed a ‘swinging-sixties’ celebrity lifestyle. He once famously said, ‘I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered.’ This lifestyle, especially the drinking, eventually interfered with his career. In the early 1970s he struggled to maintain the discipline required of a professional footballer. He would go missing, miss training, decide to retire, resolve to do better, miss training again and so on. Different managers struggled to manage him. In early 1974, when Tommy Docherty was manager, Best played his final game for Manchester United. Thereafter he drifted in and out of retirement, appearing for various clubs mainly in England and America.

Best continued to have a stormy personal life after he finished playing. His different relationships and his alcoholism kept him in the media. In 2002 he underwent a liver transplant operation, but still didn’t stop drinking. His health inevitably declined and, on 25 November 2005, Best died aged just fifty-nine.