Heard the story about the guy who knew where he was when JFK died... At the time he was stood behind a picket fence above a grassy knoll with a high powered rifle in his hand.
When Ryan Giggs scored that goal against Arsenal in the FA Cup semi-final in 1999, Denis Law said on Sky Sports the nest day "That's very good Ryan, but George Best used to do that every week." Except he didn't. The simple facts borne out by his goalscoring record prove that. Manchester United fans and other dewy-eyed old sods rank him alongside Di Stefano, Puskas, Pele, Cruyff, Maradona, Zidane, Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo... Cross out Ronaldo, Messi, (Head Butt) Zidane, (Hand of God really?) Maradona and yes Best could be considered a great, I saw him a few times, most of it he spent on the ground at yet another clobbering from someone who wanted a bit of fame that George Best didn't get passed me. I won't mention the Eurorpean Cup and Benfica or the fact he scored 6? goals at Northampton. Ok no big deal Northampton but for a man who rode as many tackles that todays footballers would roll halfway round the pitch at he did remarkably well to survive so long. Yes he messed up big time, to the utter distress of Sir Matt Busby and the distaste of Sir Bobby Charlton, he was the first football superstar to live in a goldfish bowl atmosphere that many of todays so called superstars are well protetected from. His ultimate betrayal of all those who tried to protect his failing reputation was his shameful appearance on the Terry Wogan chat show when obviously, not 2 sheets to wind but several sheet of a gale force to the wind and Terry, being a fellow Irishman, tried and ultimately had to put an end to the shambolic Best out of the viewers sight. But I had read, but have no proof, that the hospitality people at the BBC knowing of Best's fragile state plied him with booze beforehand, 'to calm his nerves' when in fact all it did was give a sorry epitaph to a once fantastic footballer.
People love a flawed hero. Garrincha is more popular than pele in Brazil. Never mind what the old clips show. He set people's pulses racing. The press latched onto it and made more of it. He never reached his full potential and cos he was flawed he never could. That's the appeal.
I'm not really sure what you're saying. I didn't say Best wasn't a great. He is. But when listing the achievements of the players you're seemingly ruling out, you're talking World Cups and multiple Champions League/European Cup winners medals. You'd be going down the list for a long, long time before you got to their equivalent of six goals against Northampton. I don't doubt that Best was a terrific player, just not on the level that a lot of people like to put him at (which is alongside the true global greats that I named). As for what happened to him in later life, I've seen people fight alcoholism. It's horrible. He had my utter sympathy and was undoubtedly let down by some. But none of that is particularly relevant to his achievements as a player.
Amazing how many great natural talents couldn't cope with the off the field stuff..... Gazza, Best, Bowles, Socrates, Worthington to name just five, then of course Maradona ...All natural talents on the pitch, but suspect off it.
I don't think Pele and others would have won many World Cups if they had played for Northern Ireland.
Yep. It's like Yashin. Widely acknowledged as one of or even the greatest goalie but how many saw him for a prolonged period in the West?
Ah! I was about to reply with a similar sentiment, but I would also like to add, in answer to Richard G is that Best was an exemplary tallent but many of the defenders were quite brutal in stopping him from using his talent, there were some heavy crunchers in those days that would have the likes of today so called hard men running for the players tunnel. On the occasions I saw him some defenders of the calibre of Dave McKay, Norman Hunter, Ron Harris, and many others would just make sure that George could hardly walk never mind run, but he wasn't the only one, Mick Jones of Leeds was another dished out similar treatment, it was the nature of the game in those days. In the end George couldn't wait to get to America, with his mate Rodney Marsh, another one used to being clobbered, in pure medal terms he was not all that great but in todays diminshed valued gongs he would have a shed full.
You remember the song then lol Aye Aye ya Aye McKechnie is better than Yashin, Waggy is better than Eusabio and (whoever city was playing) are in for a thrashing.
That goal Best scored as he evaded Chopper Harris's attempt to scythe his legs off was a joy to behold. On a quagmire of a pitch that modern players would flounder on. No one since has increased crowds wherever they appear like he did. Once saw Best pull off a bit of skill at Elland Road that even brought applause from Leeds fans and some Leeds players. No cameras there in those days recording everything so that, and other great moments by him and other players weren't seen by those not at the game like nowadays.
