George Best
- Country : Ireland
- Profession :Athlete
- DOB: 1946-05-22
George Best (22 May 1946 – 25 November 2005) was a Northern Irish football legend renowned for his exceptional skill and charisma on the field. Born in Belfast, Best rose to fame in the 1960s as a winger for Manchester United, where he achieved widespread recognition. His dribbling ability, balance, and goal-scoring prowess earned him the nickname “the Belfast Boy.” Best played a crucial role in Manchester United’s success, including their 1968 European Cup victory. Despite his talent, his career was marred by personal struggles, including issues with alcoholism. He later played for various clubs worldwide before retiring. George Best remains an iconic figure in football history, remembered for his remarkable talent and complex life story.
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?
Author: George BestI 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.
Author: George BestFootball 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.
Author: George BestThere 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.
Author: George BestI dressed more like a pop star, I suppose, rather than the traditional blazer and tall trousers other players went for.
Author: George BestIt has been a long week but things have taken a turn for the best. I am very optimistic.
Author: George BestI’m lucky because I was born with a talent, but I also worked hard to develop it.
Author: George BestMe 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.
Author: George BestBy 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.
Author: George BestI 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.
Author: George BestIt 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.
Author: George BestEvery 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.
Author: George BestThe 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.
Author: George BestI 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.
Author: George BestI 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.
Author: George BestPeople say you have to hit rock bottom, and, I can tell you, almost dying is as rock bottom as it gets.
Author: George BestI definitely do not think money can buy love. You can buy affection, but not love.
Author: George BestThe best thing about being a dad? Well, I think it’s just the thing that every man wants – to have a son and heir.
Author: George BestWhen I look back on my life as a whole, it is impossible for me not to feel blessed.
Author: George BestI might go to Alcoholics Anonymous, but I think it would be difficult for me to remain anonymous.
Author: George BestWhen 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.
Author: George BestI always felt like an entertainer and I knew I could get the crowd excited by doing little things and trying things differently.
Author: George BestI 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.
Author: George BestPeople always say I shouldn’t be burning the candle at both ends. Maybe they haven’t got a big enough candle.
Author: George BestIt 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.
Author: George BestFootball is big business – you can’t get away from it. But you have to separate that side from the playing.
Author: George BestWhen they first installed all-seater stadiums everyone predicted that the fans wouldn’t stand for it.
Author: George BestRobert Redford used to be such a handsome man and now look at him: everything has dropped, expanded and turned a funny color.
Author: George BestI 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.
Author: George BestI’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.
Author: George BestThere 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.
Author: George BestThey say Paul Gascoigne is the new George Best but has he shagged three Miss Worlds?
Author: George BestThey told me I wouldn’t make 25. Then it was 35, then 45. These were my doctors speaking – they’re all dead now.
Author: George BestI’m a player who needs to play every week. I’ve got a lot to learn and a lot to prove.
Author: George BestI 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.
Author: George BestI was in for 10 years and I think I must have had 35 different managers. It wasn’t easy for them.
Author: George BestHe 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.
Author: George BestThey say I slept with seven Miss Worlds. I didn’t. It was only four. I didn’t turn up for the other three.
Author: George BestEveryone went crazy over Wayne Rooney, but I get more excited by Cristiano Ronaldo.
Author: George BestEvery 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.
Author: George BestEven 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.
Author: George BestHe did have my son at one of his Schools of Excellence once…. and he came back bald.
Author: George BestIt 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.
Author: George BestThat’s what children do – throw food. That’s not fighting. We were real men. We’d have chinned them.
Author: George BestI’d give all the Champagne I’ve ever drunk to be playing alongside him in a big European match at Old Trafford.
Author: George BestFootballers 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.
Author: George BestI 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!
Author: George BestThey’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.
Author: George BestOn being sent to prison for drink driving in 1984: ‘Well, I suppose that’s the knighthood f****d.
Author: George BestI once said Gazza’s IQ was less than his shirt number and he asked me: ‘What’s an IQ?
Author: George BestHe’s been very, very lucky, an average player who came into the game when it was short of personalities.
Author: George BestIt’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.
Author: George BestI was in for 10 hours and had 40 pints – beating my previous record by 20 minutes.
Author: George BestI never went out in the morning with the intention of getting drunk. It just happened.
Author: George BestI may have had a lot of luck in my life, but I still need to find the right woman.
Author: George BestPele called me the greatest footballer in the world. That is the ultimate salute to my life.
Author: George Best