George Best died today in hospital of multiple organ failure.
R.i.p.
“If I’d been born ugly no-one would of heard of Pele.”
- George Best.
So true. He is a true footballing legend.
We were big fans when he played on the LA Aztecs. I’m pretty sure I met him once, but not absolutely certain. I do remember him as being awfully good looking.
I grew up a Seattle Sounders fan. Best used to scare the shit out of me when he played for the Aztecs—especially in the 1977 playoffs. I was perfectly aware he could beat us all by himself—and he almost did.
RIP Bestie. 
CNN’s web site refers to him as the fifth Beatle. At first I thought they screwed up and thought Pete Best died but apparently he was known as the fifth Beatle in the 60’s. It’s the curse of the fifth Beatle. Stuart Sutcliffe-dead. Murry the K-dead. George Best-dead. That leaves Pete Best and George Martin as the only surviving fifth Beatles. And Yoko as the surviving fifth wheel.
But didn’t Best get the “5th Beatle” nickname because his popularity rivaled that of the Beatles, not because he hung out with the band?
George was Joe Namath the the nth power, before Joe Namath!
I remember Tug McGraw stealing George’s classic line after the 1969 World Series. Supposedly, after the maximum wage in soccer was removed, someone asked George what he’d do with all his new money. “I’ll spend most of it on birds and booze. The rest, I’ll proibably waste.”
How ironic is it that he died on the first day of extended drinking hours?
Alanis Morrissette might consider it ironic, judging by her apparent misunderstanding of the word in the song of that name, but is it really? If George Best had decided to give up drinking today (actually, yesterday), that would have been ironic. Or if he had declared that, bollocks, the giving-up-booze thing just wasn’t happening, and that he now planned to drink round the clock, and promptly died, maybe that would have been ironic too. But dying early because you are an alcoholic, one day after alcohol regulations are relaxed, is just a rather sad coincidence.
1977? He was a worn-out, broken-down old has-been by then - which should clue you in on how good he was when he was in his prime. I saw the tribute programme on TV tonight and he was a wizard, an absolute wizard. I knew of him, but was too young during his early career to pay much attention. He could do anything with a football except make it play the violin, and given time, practice and a Tune-A-Day book, I wouldn’t have bet money against even that.
You’re grossly exaggerating, and I need no “cluing in” whatsoever. I saw the man play in person several times, and I grew up watching the film from the '60s. He was still in possession of most of his skills when I saw him play, and he was still incredible. He had simply worn out his welcome in the UK.
Let me clue you in: quite a few footballers from the old First Division played quality football in the NASL long before they were “worn out” and “broken down.” For example, I had the distinct pleasure of watching Alan Hudson’s genius on a weekly basis for four years, and he was still world class at the age of 27. Perhaps you’ve heard of him: he was one of the last of the great English midfielders—you know, before you guys fully dedicated yourselves to the curious tactic of mindlessly banging the ball from one penalty area to the other. There was a time—even in England—when midfielders did more than simply monitor the flight of the ball overhead.
“I love playing the English. As soon as you lose the ball, they give it right back.” — Johan Cruyff
Did Cruyff actually say that? There’s enough truth in it for somebody to have said it, but I haven’t been able to Google anything linking it to Cruyff.
I was living in London in 1976-77 when Best was playing with Fulham. He was playing with his friends Rodney Marsh and Bobby Moore and they set out to be entertaining. I remember seeing Best held up by his marker on the wing and Moore ran around him, stealing the ball on his blindside. Before the defender could react Best had turned to chase Moore who he ran past while pilfering the ball back and then slid it past the defence back to Moore. The crowd loved it and Best and Moore were in stitches.
One Saturday I was heading with friends to Craven Cottage and we stopped for a beer up the road. Suddenly the pub was full of Manchester United supporters (who don’t care about home supporters only restrictions). Apparently ManU’s fixture with QPR at Loftus Rd was off due to some malfunction of the turf warming system. I imagine ManU probably had a ticket allocation of maybe 2,000 and it seemed that all of them had decided that if they couldn’t see the current Red Devils they would make do with a great former one.
That was how good he was.
According to wikipedia, he had at least one drunk-driving conviction after he underwent a liver transplant. Nice.
You don’t know the half of it.
Still a great player, though.
Well yes, he was an alcoholic. My mum is an alcoholic so I know second hand how hard it is for a true alcoholic to give up booze.
Slave to the bottle. Rate him on what he did, not what he was capable of, as it don’t exist. Apparently, he ain’t no Pele, who was able to keep his shiite together, no matter how many Miss Worlds he bedded.
He certainly wasn’t a Pele when it came to maintaining a solid personal life. He was, however, a gifted footballer who can be mentioned in the same breath as Pele. Unlike Pele, George Best played for Northern Ireland which wasn’t an international power-house. And with all due respect to Pele, I would have scored a few goals if I was playing for the 1970 Brazil team.