I was very famous, and I think I didn’t handle the fame very well.

I used to go to training ground by helicopter, and I would see people on the street walking to work and I’d think, ‘Why aren’t they taking a helicopter?

The more money I earn, the more expensive my women become.

I used to practice with a golf ball because it was easier to control.

I used to work in a bank when I was younger, and my dad used to say, ‘Son, I used to carry a saw and cut down trees, and now you’re working in a bank.’ He was disappointed in that.

Football is the beautiful game. It’s the game that gives you plenty of emotions, and what’s more, it teaches you to deal with those emotions.

There are so many memories for me in Manchester. Everywhere I go, I think, ‘I used to have boutiques here, clubs there, restaurants in that area.

I don’t expect to win every battle, but I think I’ll be around for a while.

I dressed more like a pop star, I suppose, rather than the traditional blazer and tall trousers other players went for.

I know myself I will never drink again.

It has been a long week but things have taken a turn for the best. I am very optimistic.

On the pitch, he could beat everybody. Off it, he couldn’t beat himself.

I’m lucky because I was born with a talent, but I also worked hard to develop it.

I don’t think I’ll ever be able to completely walk away from football.

I don’t want to be remembered for my footballing achievements alone.

I’ve never had a problem with drugs, only with policemen.

I used to dream of being a comic strip artist.

I’ve had 12 years of peak fame, and that’s enough for any man.

Well, there’s no point in asking me. I can’t remember what happened last night!

He’s not fit to lace my boots as a player.

I think he’s a very talented player, but he’s not in the same class as me.

Me and a mate picked up two darling birds and they took us back to their flat. I went into the bedroom with my bird and she started getting undressed. I was that drunk I was standing there wondering how to get undressed without letting go of the award. I went to sit on the bed, missed it by four feet and ended up lying on the floor. I remember the bird looking down at me, and saying, ‘Some player of the year.’ Then I fell asleep. I woke up still clutching my award and staggered out of the flat. I hadn’t a bloody clue where I was.

By the time I was 25 I felt the team was in decline and alcohol was taking over. For three years I was out every night and gambling became a drug, too.

I was probably the first footballer ever to have a pop star profile and my agent was right when he said we could put my name on stair rods and sell them to people in bungalows.

It got so bad that I was afraid to go near the windows and I couldn’t get away without a police escort. It was like being a prisoner.

I was ill, and everyone could see it but me.

Every time I look at a Newcastle shirt, it reminds me of the 5-1 victory against them. It’s a pity they never pass it in their own stadium.

The greatest moment of my life was when I was eight years old and asked my mother what the capital of Uruguay was. She didn’t know, but she took me to the library where I found out it was Montevideo. It was like a huge light went on in my head. That was it.

I used to dream of scoring goals, and I would always try to find new ways to do it. That’s what made me the player I was.

That thing about being an icon, the fifth Beatle, I just found it so freaky.

I want to be remembered for my football and the pleasure I gave people.

I don’t recognize myself in the players I see today. There’s only one who excites me, and that is Thierry Henry. He’s not just a great footballer, he’s a showman, an entertainer.

People say you have to hit rock bottom, and, I can tell you, almost dying is as rock bottom as it gets.

I definitely do not think money can buy love. You can buy affection, but not love.

Do not die like me.

My biggest goal is for my father to think I was the best, and he thinks.

I will respect this liver. After all, it’s not mine.

The best thing about being a dad? Well, I think it’s just the thing that every man wants – to have a son and heir.

Drink is the only opponent I have been unable to beat.

When I look back on my life as a whole, it is impossible for me not to feel blessed.

It’s a pleasure to be standing here. It’s a pleasure to be standing up.

I might go to Alcoholics Anonymous, but I think it would be difficult for me to remain anonymous.

Maybe “lonely” is too strong a word, but I’ve always enjoyed being alone.

Football is a sad game.

If football is an art, then I am an artist.

When I first arrived in America, in an effort to drum up enthusiasm, I was billed by the media as ‘the White Pele’…I decided to put everything right, though, at my first press conference when I told the assembled media that I was not ‘the White Pele’ and that Pele was in fact ‘the Black George Best.

I always felt like an entertainer and I knew I could get the crowd excited by doing little things and trying things differently.

I found it difficult to watch myself playing on TV because I couldn’t identify with the person on the screen. I couldn’t get to grips with it. It was as if it was all happening to someone else.

People always say I shouldn’t be burning the candle at both ends. Maybe they haven’t got a big enough candle.

It had nothing to do with women and booze, car crashes or court cases. It was purely football. Losing wasn’t in my vocabulary. When the wonderful players I had been brought up with – Charlton, Law, Crerand, Stiles – went into decline, United made no real attempt to buy the best replacements. I was left struggling among fellas who should not have been allowed through the door. It sickened me that we ended up being just about the worst team in the First Division.

Football is big business – you can’t get away from it. But you have to separate that side from the playing.

When they first installed all-seater stadiums everyone predicted that the fans wouldn’t stand for it.

Robert Redford used to be such a handsome man and now look at him: everything has dropped, expanded and turned a funny color.

I must be the only person in the world who’s looking forward to going into hospital. I can’t wait to get it over and done with.

I’d have to be superman to do some of the things I’m supposed to have done, I’ve been at six different places at six different times.

There isn’t a single player I would pay to watch. You can say Thierry Henry, he’s a fabulous striker, with pace and power, but a great entertainer needs to have charisma, too. Does he have charisma? No.

Love is about mutual respect, apart from the attraction.

They say Paul Gascoigne is the new George Best but has he shagged three Miss Worlds?

They told me I wouldn’t make 25. Then it was 35, then 45. These were my doctors speaking – they’re all dead now.

I’m a player who needs to play every week. I’ve got a lot to learn and a lot to prove.

I don’t run away from a challenge because I am afraid. Instead, I run toward it because the only way to escape fear is to trample it beneath your feet.

I was in for 10 years and I think I must have had 35 different managers. It wasn’t easy for them.

He had a small house near the sea, but to go to the beach had to go through in front of a bar, I never bathed me.

They say I slept with seven Miss Worlds. I didn’t. It was only four. I didn’t turn up for the other three.

My one big regret is that I didn’t play on for ten more years.

Everyone went crazy over Wayne Rooney, but I get more excited by Cristiano Ronaldo.

Every team has a hard man. We had Nobby Stiles, Chelsea had Chopper, Arsenal had Peter Storey, Liverpool had Tommy Smith. Leeds had eleven of them.

Even at the height of my fame, fifty per cent of the people who saw me wanted a fight; it’s the downside of being a star player.

He did have my son at one of his Schools of Excellence once…. and he came back bald.

It is typical of me to be finishing a long and distinguished drinking career just as the government is planning to open pubs 24 hours a day.

That’s what children do – throw food. That’s not fighting. We were real men. We’d have chinned them.

I’d give all the Champagne I’ve ever drunk to be playing alongside him in a big European match at Old Trafford.

Footballers today are millionaires by the time they’re 22 or 23. More and more of them are going out and looking for something to give them a buzz outside football, be it gambling, drugs or booze. I got my buzz from playing. Players now have a groin injury for months and months and I often think they don’t really give a toss whether they’re playing or not because they’re getting paid anyway.

I used to dream about taking the ball round the keeper, stopping it on the line and then getting on my hands and knees and heading it into the net. When I scored against Benfica in the 1968 European Cup final I nearly did it. I left the keeper for dead but then I chickened out. I might have given the boss a heart attack!

They’ll forget all the rubbish when I’ve gone and they’ll remember the football. If only one person thinks I’m the best player in the world, that’s good enough for me.

On being sent to prison for drink driving in 1984: ‘Well, I suppose that’s the knighthood f****d.

I once said Gazza’s IQ was less than his shirt number and he asked me: ‘What’s an IQ?

He’s been very, very lucky, an average player who came into the game when it was short of personalities.

One day they might even say that I was another Ryan Giggs.

I always wanted more – more of everything.

To call Keegan a superstar is stretching a point.

It’s true that I’ve made lots of mistakes but I’ve never tried to bother anyone. I want to stay alive, preferably in peace, without seeing every one of my mistakes in the papers, and on many occasions, even stories that are lies.

I was in for 10 hours and had 40 pints – beating my previous record by 20 minutes.

I never went out in the morning with the intention of getting drunk. It just happened.

If you make up your own mind, you can only blame yourself.

You can’t trust very many people.

I spent 90% of my money on women and drink. The rest I wasted.

I used to go missing a lot… miss Canada, miss United Kingdom, miss World.

I never gave up on alcohol, it gave up on me.

I am not a Saint, unless you think of a Saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.

Pain is temporary, glory… lasts forever!

I may have had a lot of luck in my life, but I still need to find the right woman.

Pele called me the greatest footballer in the world. That is the ultimate salute to my life.

He cannot kick with his left foot, he cannot head a ball, he cannot tackle and he doesn’t score many goals. Apart from that, he’s all right.

I was born with a great gift, and sometimes with that comes a destructive streak. Just as I wanted to outdo everyone when I played, I had to outdo everyone when we were out on the town.

There have been a few players described as the new George Best over the years, but this is the first time it’s been a compliment to me.

I’ve stopped drinking, but only while I’m asleep.

If I’d been born ugly, you’d never have heard of Pelé.

Drink,Drugs and shagging models. The rest I just wasted. George Best on where his millions went.

If I had to choose between dribbling past 5 players and scoring from 40 yards at Anfield or shagging miss world, it’d be a hard choice. Thankfully, i’ve done both.

In 1969 I gave up women and alcohol – it was the worst 20 minutes of my life.

I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered.