George Best

George Best
Personnel
birthday	May 22, 1946
place of birth	Belfast , Northern Ireland ,  UK
date of death	November 25, 2005
Place of death	London , England ,  UK
size	175 cm
position	Midfield , right winger
Juniors
Years	station
1963	Manchester United
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1963-1974	Manchester United	361 (137)
1975	→  Stockport County  (loan)	3 00(2)
1975-1976	Cork Celtic	3 00(0)
1976-1988	Los Angeles Aztecs	61 0(29)
1976-1977	Fulham FC	42 00(8)
1979 + 1980	Fort Lauderdale Strikers	33 00(7)
1979-1980	Hibernian Edinburgh	22 00(3)
1979–1980 + 1981	San Jose Earthquakes	86 0(34)
1983	Bournemouth AFC	5 00(0)
1983	Brisbane Lions	4 00(0)
1984	Tobermore United	1 00(0)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1964-1988	Northern Ireland	37 00(9)
1 Only league games are given.

George Best (born May 22, 1946 in Belfast , † November 25, 2005 in London ) was a Northern Irish football player . He is best known for his successful career at Manchester United .

The strengths that are typical of a winger in the form of high speed and rapid acceleration combined the Best, who shot equally with both feet, with a very pronounced risk of goal scoring. In 1968 he experienced his personal “ Annus mirabilis ” when he won the European Cup with United and was voted Europe's Footballer of the Year . Although he was a key player in the Northern Irish national team , he was never able to lead his country to the finals of a World Cup .

From Pele Best in the 2004 list of top 125 world footballer added. In a UEFA survey to mark the 50th anniversary of the European Football Association, he was ranked 19th behind Gerd Müller . Especially in his Northern Irish homeland, Best, who is mostly on the right wing position, is very popular, which is reflected in the word play “ Maradona good; Pele better; George Best. ”Finds its expression.

He was one of the first media stars among football players. However, his extravagant lifestyle meant that he became more and more addicted to alcoholism , which had a lasting negative impact on his career and ultimately led to his early death at the age of only 59 after contracting a kidney infection. This was caused by the side effects of immunosuppressive drugs that Best had to take after his liver transplant . Best was very popular with his followers over the course of and after his career due to his closeness to the people and shrewdness, but drunkenness on television, convictions for driving under the influence of alcohol, insulting a police officer, allegations of domestic violence and his inability to drink even after the liver transplant giving up also showed a downside to bests. Nevertheless, on a rainy day, 100,000 people attended his funeral in east Belfast .

Adolescence

George Best was born the oldest of four children. His father Dickie was a dock worker, while mother Annie, a former hockey player, was an early role model for George's athletic goals. Already at a very young age, the lightweight George laid the foundation for an extraordinary technology in the midst of the mostly physically superior and physically playful working-class children. His later legendary reputation as an exceptional talent with dribbling in the smallest of spaces, short hooks and body illusions found its origin here. It was also the time when the Northern Irish national team had reached the quarter-finals at the World Cup in Sweden in 1958 and, with players like Peter McParland and Billy Bingham, inspired the generation around George Best.

Best then played club football for the first time at the "Cregagh Football Club". He quickly got used to the bigger football field and in Belfast the voices got louder and louder that such talent had never been seen before. The games themselves quickly became a boring affair for Best, as he showed himself to be clearly superior to his peers.

Manchester United

George Best as a painting on a wall of houses in Woodstock Road, East Belfast

At the age of 15, Best was discovered by Bob Bishop - Manchester United's talent scout - who, in a telegram to head coach Matt Busby , used the words often quoted later: "I think I've found you a genius." I think I've discovered a genius for you. ”) His home club Glentoran Belfast , however, had previously found him“ too small and too light ”. Best was invited to Manchester in 1961 together with another young player ( Eric McMordie ), but after just one day he was homesick and fled back to Belfast. However, after his father's phone call with Busby, Best returned and found the United coach as a father figure in Manchester.

On September 14, 1963 Best came to his first use at Old Trafford in the 1-0 win over West Bromwich Albion . Two weeks later he scored his first goal against Burnley FC and scored a total of six goals in his first season for United, who finished second in the championship behind Liverpool FC . In the following season 1964/65 Best won his first English league title with Manchester United.

For the first time he made bigger headlines in the quarter-final second leg of the European championship competition against Benfica Lisbon , in which he scored two goals in the first ten minutes and thus led Manchester United to a spectacular 5-1 away win. This performance earned him the title "El Beatle " in the press and his footballing skills in combination with his show talent made him more and more a media favorite. There he was referred to as the " fifth Beatle " because of his long hair, good looks and his extravagant and high-profile lifestyle , and Best underpinned this image with public appearances, such as in 1965 as a dancing guest on the music show Top of the Pops . Another nickname Bests, whose first name was often converted to "Georgie" or in his native Belfast to "Geordie", the term "Belfast Boy" found greater use in public.

In the 1966/67 season Best won his second English championship with United, distancing Nottingham Forest and Tottenham Hotspur by four points each. Only a year later, Best's greatest success followed, when he scored a goal in the final of the European championship against Benfica Lisbon. United won 4-1 and Best was chosen as Europe and also England's Footballer of the Year by English football journalists .

After this sporting climax, however, the steady decline began. Even before that, his fellow players had at times envied his fame and Best's style of playing also became more selfish when it came to sport as he more and more often overlooked his better positioned comrade. With the resignation of coach Busby in 1969, Best lost one of his greatest advocates and the former star striker became increasingly involved in activities outside of football. With the decline of Best and his ever-increasing alcoholism, the great times of Manchester United came to an end and even led to relegation to the second division by 1974.

In the late 1960s, Best had already opened two nightspots with the “Oscar's” and “Slack Alice's” - the latter later became known as the “42nd Street Nightclub”. He also owned two fashion boutiques with Mike Summerbee from Manchester City . His passion for gambling and women took an ever greater place in his life, in 1971 Best was only a shadow of earlier days when it comes to sport and he also built up a considerable mountain of debt due to his gambling addiction and the ultimately unsuccessful business activities. Finally, coach Tommy Docherty suspended him from the first team in 1972 and instead transferred him to the junior division, because Best more and more often - if he showed up at all - started training drunk in the mornings and sometimes couldn't be found for days before competitive games. In the same year, Best announced his resignation, only to make a comeback nine months later .

He played his last game for United on January 1, 1974 against the Queens Park Rangers on Loftus Road . The player with the shirt number 7 played 466 competitive games for Manchester and was the top scorer with 178 goals during this time - including six in a game against fourth division club Northampton Town . He was also the club's top scorer for six consecutive seasons and top scorer in the English elite class with 28 league goals in the 1967/68 season.

Later football stations and the years in the USA

Best played briefly in South Africa in 1974 for the Jewish Guild of Johannesburg , but had to contend with the same alcohol and gambling problems and returned to England, where he played for Dunstable Town in a friendly. Coach there was his former teammate Barry Fry . On loan, he finally moved to the English fourth division to Stockport County , where he scored two goals in three games in 1975. He came to three more games for the Irish club Cork Celtic , before he then made the leap across the Atlantic in 1976 to play for the Los Angeles Aztecs in the North American professional league NASL .

In Los Angeles , he became the unrestricted star player of the team and was among the top scorers in the league with 15 goals in his first season. In the following two years he returned to this place and also experienced a brief return to his old strength between 1976 and 1977 with the English second division FC Fulham , albeit no longer as an agile winger. There was finally a dispute over his commitment in 1978 to the US club Fort Lauderdale Strikers as part of his activities at Fulham FC. The world football association FIFA finally suspended Best, so that he was only used for this club in 1979. In a similar alternating manner, as before between Fulham and the Aztecs, Best played from then on for the Scottish club Hibernian Edinburgh and was hired in 1980 in San José at the Earthquakes at the time - not to be confused with the current MLS team of the same name . There he began alcohol therapy and played 56 more times between 1981 and 1982 before turning his back on the United States.

After smaller engagements - for example at the English AFC Bournemouth and in Australia with the Brisbane Lions - Best finally resigned from active sport. In health and financial terms, Best suffered further setbacks from the mid-1980s. After he was sent to prison in 1984 for being drunk behind the wheel and massively insulting a police officer, it was only four years later that a "testimonial match" organized by friends in Belfast in Windsor Park - similar to a mixture of a farewell game and a personal charity event for former players - avert the impending bankruptcy of Bests once again.

Northern Ireland national team

Best played 37 times for the Northern Ireland national team and scored nine goals. He had already made his debut shortly before his 18th birthday on April 15, 1964 in Swansea with a 3-2 win against Wales and more than 13 years later he said goodbye on October 12, 1977 with a 0-1 defeat against the Netherlands in his home town of Belfast.

Windsor Park in Belfast was also the site of what was arguably the most spectacular scene in Best's international career on May 15, 1971. In the game against England , Best spiked the ball away from the opposing goalkeeper Gordon Banks while taking a shot on goal, won the subsequent duel against the goalkeeper and headed into the goal. The goal was not formally recognized and England won the match 1-0, but the mischievous scene of Best's against the former world champion goalkeeper had found its way into football history.

In the run-up to the 1982 World Cup in Spain, then Northern Ireland coach Billy Bingham considered calling 36-year-old Best to the squad. However, since his athletic abilities had already suffered significantly due to his ongoing alcohol problems and advanced age, this project was abandoned at an early stage. Best then spoke out in favor of a joint Northern Irish-Irish team.

After the active career

After his career, Best worked for various newspapers and from 1998 became a commentator for the British TV broadcaster Sky Sports . He continued to appear publicly during the 1990s due to his alcohol problems and appeared drunk on the prime time talk show " Wogan " in September 1990, sparking major public protests from viewers. Best later apologized for this gig and classified it as one of his darkest chapters.

In 1995 he married the model Alex Pursey . Best had previously married the former Playboy model Angela MacDonald-James in Las Vegas in 1978 and divorced her in 1986 - five years after the birth of their son. But Best's problems didn't stop at the new liaison either, and Alex Best later accused Best in 2004 in the UK edition of “ I'm a Star - Get Me Out of Here! “Her husband for beating her during their relationship.

When a successor to Jack Charlton as the new Irish national coach was sought in 1996 , Best publicly expressed his interest in this position. The Football Association of Ireland ("FAI") finally decided on Mick McCarthy . Health continued to decline for Best and he announced in 2001 that he was on the waiting list for a liver transplant.

The last few years

On July 30, 2002, he was admitted to King's College Hospital in London for this procedure. When he continued to consume alcohol in public in 2003, he met with criticism from the public. Above all, he was accused of massive egoism and insensitive behavior. Also financially, Best made negative headlines in 2003 when he announced that he would have to sell his trophy for Europe's Footballer of the Year in order to finance a new house in Greece with the proceeds. In 2004, he was deprived of his driver's license for 20 months because of drunk driving.

On October 3, 2005, Best was admitted to the private Cromwell Hospital in London for intensive treatment. He had a kidney infection from the side effects of immunosuppressive drugs. Best had to take this after his liver transplant so that his body would not reject the newly inserted organ. On October 27, the press first announced that his condition had become life-threatening. His condition stabilized briefly and in November he relapsed again. On November 20, the British tabloid “News of the World” printed a photo of Best with his last message “don't die like me” at his request in his sick bed. He died five days later as a result of multiple organ failure .

The Premier League announced that the following weekend a minute's silence would be held before all English premier league games , but that this was "ignored" in several stadiums by the tradition that the deceased would instead be honored with one-minute applause. The first game at Old Trafford after Best's death was in the League Cup against West Bromwich Albion - this was the club Best made his debut against in 1963. Bobby Charlton, other former players from his former club and opponent West Bromwich Albion, held a minute's silence together with Best's son Calum before the game, while spectators held up pictures of the deceased.

Funeral and honors

George Best was buried in Belfast on December 3, 2005. About 100,000 people paid his final respects, making this funeral one of the largest ceremonies of its kind in British history. Best's burial next to his mother in the "Roselawn Cemetery" itself took place in private.

The lettering of the "George Best Belfast City Airport"

To honor Best, Belfast City Airport in the east of Belfast was renamed “ George Best Belfast City Airport ”. For this purpose, an official ceremony took place in the presence of the family of Best on May 22, 2006 - Best's 60th birthday. The renaming was very controversial. Only 52% of the population backed this decision and political voices said that it would have been better to name a stadium after Best than an airport. In March 2006, the low-cost airline Flybe named a De Havilland DHC-8 "The George Best".

On the occasion of the first anniversary of his death, Northern Ireland's Ulster Bank put a million five pound note into circulation with his image. After five days, the banknotes - which Best show in both the Northern Irish national shirt and the Manchester United shirt - were already sold out.

useful information

• In 1970, German filmmaker Hellmuth Costard made a film about a match between Manchester United and Coventry City , in which the camera was focused exclusively on Best for the entire duration of the game. “Football like never before” was broadcast by ARD in 1971 and provoked massive protests, as the majority of viewers found it impossible to broadcast the film at prime time or to single out only one player for a football match. At the ARD, the letters of complaint piled up after the broadcast.
• Don Fardon wrote the song Belfast Boy in 1970 as a tribute to George Best , which was placed in the British charts for 5 weeks and which he published again in 2006 on the occasion of Best's death.
• Irish rock band Thin Lizzy wrote the song For those who love to live , which was released on the album Fighting in 1975 , about George Best.
• In 1987 the English independent band The Wedding Present dedicated their first album to him.
• The nihilism of George Best is unforgettable , as expressed in his life motto: "I spent a lot of money on alcohol, women and fast cars, the rest I simply squandered." ( "I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars - the rest I just squandered. ” ) There is still evidence of this quote: “ If I had been born ugly, you would never have heard of Pelé . ”( “ If I had been born ugly, you would never have heard of Pele. " )
• In 2000, a film about George Best was made with George Best - A football god on the sidelines ( Best ). Actor John Lynch portrayed it .
• In the 1999 Champions League final , George Best, now only a spectator of Manchester United, left the stadium prematurely because his team at Camp Nou was 1-0 down against Bayern Munich shortly before the end. He missed the turnaround with two late goals for Manchester United's 2-1 win.

Club stations

• Cregagh Boys Club (until 1963)
• Manchester United (1963–74) 466 games, 178 goals
• Jewish Guild of Johannesburg (1974) 5 games
• Dunstable Town (1975)
• Stockport County (1975) 3 games, 2 goals
• Cork Celtic (1976) 3 games, 0 goals
• Los Angeles Aztecs (1976) 24 games, 15 goals
• Fulham FC (1976–77) 37 games, 8 goals
• Los Angeles Aztecs (1977) 25 games, 13 goals
• Fulham FC (1978) 10 games, 2 goals
• Los Angeles Aztecs (1978) 12 games, 1 goal
• Fort Lauderdale Strikers (1979) 14 games, 5 goals
• Hibernian Edinburgh (1979) 16 games, 3 goals
• Fort Lauderdale Strikers (1980) 19 games, 2 goals
• Hibernian Edinburgh (1980) 6 games, 0 goals
• San José Earthquakes (1981–82) 56 games, 21 goals
• Bournemouth AFC (1983) 5 games, 0 goals
• Brisbane Lions (1983–1983) 4 games, 0 goals
• Tobermore United (1984) 1 game, 0 goals

Titles, achievements and awards

title

• European champion cup: 1968
• English champion: 1965, 1967

Individual awards

• Europe's footballer of the year: 1968
• England's Footballer of the Year: 1968
• Inclusion in the English Football Hall of Fame: 2002
• Honorary Doctorate from Queen's University Belfast : 2001
• Honorary award from the footballers' union PFA: 2006

literature

• When Saturday Comes - The Half Decent Football Book , Penguin Books, London 2005, ISBN 0-14-051575-5 , pp. 32-33.
• Ulrich von Berg: From Goals and Girls - George Best is dead. In: 11 Friends , No. 51, February 2006, pp. 100-108.
• Dietrich Schulze-Marmeling : George Best, the untamed footballer. Verlag Die Werkstatt, Göttingen 2015, ISBN 978-3-7307-0172-0 .

Documentaries

• George Best - The Soccer Beatle. (OT: George Best, la popstar du football. ) Documentary, France, 2016, 26 min., Script and director: Bernard George, production: arte France, Les Films du Tambour de soie, Sara M, series: Vergissmeinnicht (OT: Les oubliés de l'histoire ), first broadcast: January 7, 2017 on arte, synopsis from ARD , film excerpt from arte (3 min.).

• Football like never before. Documentary, Federal Republic of Germany, 1970, 105 min., Script and director: Hellmuth Costard , production: Studio 1 Filmproduktion, WDR , first broadcast: March 29, 1971 on ARD , synopsis from Filmportal.de ; DVD distribution: Zweiausendeins , 2006, ISBN 978-3-86150-667-6 .
  A radical film-historical document and a homage to George Best: During the game between Manchester United and Coventry City on September 12, 1970, eight cameramen only followed Best's actions.

Web links

Commons : George Best  - collection of images, videos, and audio files

Wikiquote: George Best  - Quotes

• George-Best-Portal In: BBC (English)
• Manchester United Legends - George Best (English)
• George Best in the database of weltfussball.de

Individual evidence

1. ^ John Roberts: 'George Best was reliable only when there was a football at his feet'. ( Memento of December 17, 2007 in the Internet Archive ). In: The Independent , November 26, 2005.
2. ^ Pele's list of the greatest. In: BBC Sport , March 4, 2004.
3. ^ Nuala McCann: A city mourns for the Belfast boy. In: BBC News Northern Ireland , December 3, 2005.
4. ^ Gordon Burn: The Long Goodbye. In: The Guardian , November 25, 2005.
5. ↑ Best coming to the end of his life. In: The Scotsman , November 25, 2005.
6. ^ Anne Cadwallader: Best too small and light for local club as teen. ( Memento of February 13, 2007 in the Internet Archive ). In: Reuters , November 25, 2005.
7. ↑ Video: George Best on Top of the Pops. In: Flick to kick : “1965. Rolling Stones perform The Last Time on Top of the Pops with the fifth Beatle, George Best, in the audience. "
8. ↑ Jim White: Too many knew only the tabloid Best. ( Memento of October 12, 2007 in the Internet Archive ). In: Daily Telegraph , November 28, 2005.
9. ↑ Stephen McGinty: Parky was a 'nut', says Meg Ryan. ( Memento from April 20, 2007 in the Internet Archive ). In: The Scotsman , April 5, 2006, see last line of article.
10. ↑ Deric Henderson: 'George Best Airport' splits city. ( Memento from June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive ). In: The Scotsman , March 22, 2006.
11. ↑ Simon Jenkins: To become George Best airport is a humiliation worthy of North Korea. In: The Guardian , July 14, 2006.
12. ↑ Flybe pays tribute to George Best! ( Memento from September 1, 2006 in the Internet Archive ). In: Flybe , March 15, 2006.
13. ^ Bank note honor for George Best. In: BBC News , October 26, 2006.
14. ↑ Last of Bestie fivers sells out. In: BBC News , December 1, 2006.
15. ↑ Legendary stadium escapes (10.) In: SpOn , January 4, 2010.
16. ↑ Football mourns George Best. In: BBC Sport , November 25, 2005.