Here are some facts you need to know about George Best
George Best was a Northern Irish striker born on 22 May 1946 in Belfast, United Kingdom. His father’s name is Dickie Best and mother is Anne Best. He has 4 sisters – Carol ,Julie, Barbara, Grace and a brother – Ian Best.
Childhood
George Best’s father was a member of the Orange Order, a Protestant fraternal organisation based in Belfast. He used to play for a local boys club in Cregagh.
Without football i in his ‘Grosvenor High School’, he lost interest in studies as well and began to skip school, after which he was sent back to his old school, ‘Lisnasharragh Secondary’, where he could play football again.
Bob Bishop, a scout for Manchester United was impressed by George and immediately took him to Manchester.
Career
In 1961, George Best was signed by Joe Armstrong, the chief scout at Manchester United. At that time, English clubs were prohibited from taking Northern Irish players, due to which young George played for two years as an amateur.
He worked at the ‘Manchester Ship Canal’ during this time and trained with the club two times every week. In 1963, Best made his debut for Man Utd against West Bromwich Albion. By the end of that season, he had played in 26 matches and scored 6 goals.
In 1963, he played his first match for Ireland in the under-18 youth team. Soon, he made his debut for the senior team too, against England. Overall, he played 37 matches for Ireland and scored 9 goals.
In his first season, United won the FA Youth Cup. In the next season of 1964-1965, United won the league title and reached the semi-finals of FA Cup. Best’s contribution was 14 goals in 59 games.
In season 1966-1967, he was influential in helping the Man Utd claim both their 7th league title and the charity shield, scoring 10 goals in 45 games. The 1967-1968 season was the most outstanding one as he was highest scorer in the league, netting 28 goals in 41 games.
The same season, he played an important role for his team in the European Cup as well, which United won, becoming the first English team to do so.
1970 onwards, he started getting entangled into a lot of discipline issues. He started drinking a lot and even announced retirement twice, but returned to play both times.
The 1973-1974 season was Best’s last at United. Overall, he scored 179 goals in 470 games for United. From 1975 to 1984, he signed for various clubs in different leagues, playing in South Africa, Ireland, US, Scotland and Australia. He even returned to England and played for Fulham for two years.
Awards & Achievemetns
- 1X WINNER BALLON D’OR
- 1X EUROPEAN CHAMPION CLUBS’ CUP (NOW CALLED ‘UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE’)
- 2X PREMEIR LEAGUE
- 1X FA CUP
- 2X FA COMMUNITY SHIELD
Personal Life
In 1973, George Best opened ‘Slack Alice’, a nightclub in Manchester. He also owned restaurants and boutiques in the city.
In 1978, he got married to Angela MacDonald-Janes, an English model, in Las Vegas. After three years, a son, Calum was born to the couple. The marriage ended in divorce eight years later.
In 1995, he got married for the second time to Alex Pursey in Chelsea, London. This marriage too ended in divorce after nine years. Because of his alcohol addiction, he committed acts like stealing money for alcohol from a woman’s handbag, drunk driving and appearing drunk on a talk show.
In 2000, he was found to be suffering from liver damage. Two years later, he had a successful liver transplant in London. He died in 2005, due to lung infection and multiple organ failure, caused by side-effects of his medication.
