George Best (1946-2005) was a Northern Irish footballer, considered one of the greatest footballers in the history of the game. Admired by the likes of Pele and Maradona, who regarded him as their idol, George Best was a popular and much-loved figure… A great footballing genius, he led a life of excess, marked by alcoholism, partying and women…
George Best – Andy Welsh – cc
George Best was born in Belfast on May 22 1946. He grew up in the city’s working-class neighborhoods, in a Protestant family. His father was a factory worker, while his mother was a professional field field hockey player with alcoholic tendencies.
George Best soon began playing football, and joined a soccer club… At the age of 15, he was spotted by Manchester United scouts Bob Bishop and Matt Busby. George is sent to Manchester for a few trials, and immediately convinces the scouts. Nevertheless, without further explanation, George Best decided to get back on the plane and return to Belfast, feeling he had seen enough.
George’s father immediately calls Matt Busby to apologize for his son’s attitude, and asks him to give him another chance. He readily accepts, and George is sent back to Manchester, to be recruited as an apprentice to Joe Armstrong, Manchester’s head of recruitment.
George Best turned professional in 1963, joining the Manchester United first team. From the very first game, Best showed himself to be a great player, and played with astonishing skill. The crowd began to take a keen interest in this phenomenon, and his popularity soared in a European Cup match in 1966, when he scored 3 goals against Eusébio’s Benfica Lisbon (5-1). George Best is now a real star.
With success on his doorstep, Best indulged in all manner of excess, partying, drinking to excess and gambling away his fortune. However, he learns of the resignation of his mentor, Matt Busby, who was one of the few people able to channel his troubles… His departure has made Best more unstable: he misses training sessions, becomes aggressive on the pitch, and is sometimes drunk during important matches.
The tabloids echoed all these excesses. She had gained a lot of weight and was worryingly carefree. His team-mates sense a significant loss of motivation. Willie Morgan, the club’s Scottish winger, would later say:
George thought he was the James Bond of soccer. He had everything he wanted: money, girls, fame. He lived from day to day and always got by that way. When he missed training, people made excuses for him. He didn’t have to provide any. He didn’t care about anything.
Given his disconcerting attitude, Best was finally ejected from Manchester United. He then joined second-rate teams (Dunstable Town, Stockport County Football Club and Cork Celtic), before moving to Los Angeles to join the Los Angeles Aztecs. It was there that he met and fell in love with Angie McDonalds, a supermodel. The latter tried to help him by putting him into rehab, but nothing helped: George Best continued to drink and spend like crazy.
The couple later returned to England, although Angie McDonalds decided to move back to the USA, fed up with the footballer’s cheating. He apologizes, catches up with her and asks her to marry him, which she accepts in 1978. Their son Calum was born in 1981. Meanwhile, Best is still juggling several soccer teams, building on his reputation as a footballing genius. Nevertheless, he decided to retire in 1983, at the age of 37.
This doesn’t stop him from making the most of his fame, and appearing on television. He also made a drunken appearance on a BBC TV show in 1991. The debauchery continues, and now Best is penniless and homeless. He decided to sell his trophies and bought a house in Greece with the money from the sales.
In 1998, Sky Sport offered him a job as a sports commentator, which he gladly accepted. In the meantime, Best did a few stints in prison for drunk driving.
In March 2000, Best’s health deteriorated: his liver could no longer cope with his alcoholic excesses, and his life was clearly in danger. He received a liver transplant in 2002, but Best continued to drink, once again damaging his liver.
He was then re-hospitalized in the intensive care unit at London’s Cromwell Hospital. He is suffering from a lung infection, and his liver is in critical condition. He finally died on November 25, 2005, at the age of 59.
The news of his death shook the whole of Great Britain, as well as Northern Ireland. Over 300,000 people attended his funeral in Belfast, and the city’s airport decided to change its name to George Best. Following his death, many of the city’s walls were repainted in his honor.
After his liver transplant in 2002, which required a transfusion of twenty liters of blood (40 half-liters, i.e. as many pints):
Ten hours for forty pints, beating my record by 20 minutes.
In 1969 I gave up women and alcohol, and that was the hardest 20 minutes of my life.
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