George Best is rightly considered by many to be one of the most talented and charismatic footballers of the 20th century. In 1968 he won the Ballon d'Or award. However, Best was remembered not only for his fantastic game, but also for his extravagant lifestyle outside the field.
Childhood and first successes in football
George Best appeared in 1946 in Irish Belfast in an ordinary working-class family - his father was a turner, and his mother worked in the tobacco industry.
Once the maternal grandfather gave little George a ball, after which football became his main hobby. George played this ball almost around the clock in the yard, using his father's garage as a gate.
Soon, the boy began to play for various teams in Belfast. It is interesting that even then Best was superior in technique to many of his peers.
Ultimately, the Manchester United scout (Manchester United) drew attention to him, and this led to the fact that fifteen-year-old Best was taken to the youth team of the famous British club.
Professional club career
On September 14, 1963, the talented Irishman made his debut in the main team of Manchester United - he was released on the field in a match against West Brom. This game was successful for Manchester, the team won by a narrow margin - 1: 0. And Best looked pretty good in this match. He even earned praise from his coach, Matt Busby.
However, then Best returned to the "youth team" and was in its composition for another three months. Matt Busby decided to re-attract the talented Irishman to the main team only in December 1963 (a series of unfortunate defeats prompted the coach to update the roster).
On December 29, 1963, Manchester United met with the Burnley team at Old Trafford's home stadium. Best not only took part in this match, but also scored in it his first goal for Manchester, thanks to which he was able to stake out a place for himself in the squad. During the 1963/1964 season, Best scored 6 goals in 26 matches. By the way, in one of the matches - against the Bolton Wanderers club - he even scored a double. By the end of the season, Manchester United finished second in the English Championship, gaining just 4 points less than Liverpool.
In the 1964/1965 season, Best was already a real favorite of Old Trafford. And he really had a lot of merit as a player. He worked brilliantly with the ball, saw the field perfectly, had a high starting speed. He had great dribbling and a well-placed shot from both the right and left feet.
In the 1964-1965 season, Manchester (and Best, who was 21 at the time) won the regular English championship. A couple of years later, in the 1966/1967 season, this success was repeated.
In the same 1967, in the 1/4 finals of the European Cup, Best at the very beginning of the first half scored two goals against the Portuguese Benfica. The game ended with a crushing score of 5: 1 in favor of Manchester.
In 1968 Manchester met Benfica again, but not in the quarterfinals, but in the European Cup final. This match turned out to be very tense. The main time here ended in a draw - 1: 1. And at the beginning of the extra half, Best, having beaten a couple of rivals with beautiful feints, became the author of the second goal. And this, in fact, predetermined the victory of the British. Then Benfica conceded two more goals and in the end the total score was 4: 1.
In the same 1968 Best became the top scorer of the English championship, during the season he chalked up 28 goals. In addition, in 1968 he was presented with the Golden Ball award as the best footballer in the Old World.
Football successes were followed by financial ones. Major advertisers began to sign contracts with Best. Soon he himself began to make money on his own name: he opened his own restaurant, two nightclubs, a travel agency, and a Fashion House.
Of course, the talented footballer had many female fans. And the number of his novels in the sixties and seventies was really great (the press constantly wrote about these novels). On top of that, he became addicted to drinking: first he drank beer, then switched to stronger drinks.
Many are sure that Best did not stand the test of "copper pipes", that is, fame and big money. His alcoholism progressed rather quickly. In a drunken state, he was unrestrained and unpredictable, easily got involved in a fight, could be rude. The result was logical: at the age of 27, the footballer left Manchester United. It happened in early January 1974. Then-coach Tommy Docherty did not announce George for the next match due to the fact that he missed training. In response, the footballer decided to say goodbye to Manchester United.
In total, from 1963 to 1974, Best played 474 matches for Manchester United and scored 179 goals. At the same time, he was the team's top scorer for several years in a row (from 1968 to 1972).
Later, George Best turned, in his own words, into a "football mercenary". Over the course of ten years, he has played in about 20 clubs, never staying more than one season anywhere. Moreover, he had a chance to play not only in England and Ireland, but also in Scotland, the USA, South Africa, Australia and Hong Kong. There was no need to talk about serious titles here, but at times Best showed the game as in his best years.
National team performances
For the Northern Ireland national team, George Best played only 37 matches, scoring 9 goals in them. However, with his national team, he never managed to get into either the World Cup or the European Championship.
The team was closest to getting to the world championship in 1970. Then Northern Ireland at the qualifying stage was seriously competing for access to the finals of the world championship with the team of the Soviet Union. The decisive match, on which the outcome of this rivalry depended, took place in Moscow, but Best did not take part in it. And without their main star, the Northern Irishmen were defeated - 0: 2. It is also worth noting that Best was severely criticized at home for his absence on the field in that match.
In 1982, the Northern Ireland team finally won a ticket to the world championship. And Best could really go as part of this team to Spain (it was there that the championship was held that year). However, at that time he was already thirty-six years old, he had no decent playing practice for a long time, but he had problems with alcohol. As a result, they decided not to take him into the line-up.
Best after retirement
Best played his last match in February 1984 for the modest Northern Irish team Tobermore United.
But even after that, Best remained faithful to his riotous lifestyle - he devoted a significant part of his time to drinking and girls. And because of alcohol, he got into unpleasant stories more than once. For example, in November 1984, Besta was stripped of his driver's license and sent to prison for three months for drunk driving and attacking a police officer.
He made money in the mid-eighties and nineties, mainly on TV and radio - he commented on football games and starred in popular TV shows.
Personal life
Best had many affairs with the most beautiful women. He himself said that he slept with four Miss Worlds. So, for example, in 1974 he met with "Miss World 1973" Marjorie Wallace.
And Angela McDonald-Janes became his first official wife. Their acquaintance took place in California. Angela was then 23 years old, and George was already 29. She worked as a fitness instructor, adhered to a healthy lifestyle, which George really liked. He cheated on her, but she was surprisingly calm about his novels "on the side". They were married from 1978 to 1986. In addition, Angela gave birth to a boy from Best - he was given the name Calum.
It is also known that from 1984 to 1987, George had an affair with model Angie Lynn. In 1986, when Lynn became pregnant, Best even considered getting married. However, she then had a miscarriage. Ultimately, after many violent scandals and Best's drunken antics, they went their separate ways.
From 1987 to 1995, the Northern Irish footballer dated a woman named Mary Shatila.
Then, from 1995 to 2004, the footballer was in a marriage alliance with the flight attendant Alex Percy (later she became one of the most famous English models). They first saw each other in a nightclub, and Best was much older than her - he was then 48, and she was only 22 years old.
Their divorce was officially formalized in 2004, although in fact their relationship was interrupted in the fall of 2003 after materials appeared in the media, which told about Best's betrayal.
Last years, death and funeral
Ultimately, Best's chronic alcoholism caused serious damage to internal organs.
On July 30, 2002, a life-saving liver transplant was performed at London's Royal Hospital Bestu. However, after the operation, he did not stop visiting pubs and drinking alcoholic beverages.
In the summer of 2003, Best was arrested by police for a brawl in a pub in Surrey. And in February 2004, Best was caught for drunk driving. For this offense, he was fined £ 1,500.
On October 3, 2005, Best was taken with an acute kidney infection to a London hospital, where he received urgent medical attention. He never left the hospital - on November 25, 2005, his death was announced.
The funeral of the legendary football player took place in Belfast, about 100,000 people came to say goodbye to Best. The funeral ceremony was also shown on TV and watched by millions of spectators.
