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George Best (born May 22, 1946 in Belfast) is a
former football (soccer)|footballer from Northern
Ireland. He played for Manchester United F.C.
between 1963 and 1974, where he won two The
Football League|League championships in 1965 and
1967, and one UEFA Champions League|European Cup
in 1968, the year he was named European Footballer
of the Year and Football Writers' Association
Player of the Year. 

Best made 466 appearances for the club in all
competitions, scoring 178 goals (including six in
one game against Northampton Town). He was capped
37 times for Northern Ireland national football
team|Northern Ireland, scoring nine goals. He
played mainly as a winger (sport)|winger and was
known for his dribbling skills and devastatingly
accurate passing. He was named one of the 125 best
footballers ever in Pelé's 2004 FIFA 100 list.

Playing alongside greats such as Denis Law and
Bobby Charlton at Manchester United, Best's talent
and showmanship made him a crowd and media
favourite. He was dubbed "the fifth Beatle" for
his long hair and good looks, but his extravagant
celebrity lifestyle led to problems with gambling
and alcoholism. Best often tells a story of a
bellboy who entered his hotel room with breakfast
in the early 1970s. Seeing Best drunk, in bed with
the current Miss World, with a magnum of champagne
and several thousand pounds of cash won from a
nights gambling, the youth exclaimed, "George,
where did it all go wrong?" In 1974, the
27-year-old Best was sacked by Manchester United
for excessive drinking and persistent failure to
attend training and matches. Over the next decade,
Best drifted between several clubs including
Fulham F.C.|Fulham, Stockport County
F.C.|Stockport County, Dunstable F.C. | Dunstable,
Hibernian F.C.|Hibernian, Los Angeles Aztecs, San
Jose Earthquakes and finally A.F.C.
Bournemouth|Bournemouth until he retired from the
game in 1983 at the age of 37.

In 1984 Best made a keep fit video' with wife and
former Miss World Mary Stavin called Shape Up And
Dance.

In 1984, Best received a three-month prison
sentence for drink driving, assaulting a police
officer and failing to answer bail. He spent
Christmas 1984 behind bars and turned out as a
player for Ford Open Prison. In 1990, he appeared
on a prime time BBC chat show in which he swore
and was clearly drunk. He later apologised and
said this was one of the worst episodes of his
alcoholism. In 2000, he had a liver organ
transplant|transplant. In 2003 he was the focus of
much criticism when, despite his transplant, he
openly drank white wine spritzers and was accused
of being selfish and having no regard for other
people's feelings. His wife Alex appeared as a
contestant in a 2003 reality television programme
making allegations about their relationship. On 3
January 2004, Best was convicted of another drink
driving offence and banned from driving for 20
months.

In November 2004 Best agreed to join FA Premier
League club Portsmouth F.C. as youth coach, citing
his desire to get involved in football again.

Best is widely considered, at least in the United
Kingdom|U.K., to be one of the most skilful
players ever to have played the game. Indeed Pele,
widely considered the finest talent ever to play
the game, once stated that George Best was the
best player he ever saw play. His talent would
almost certainly have been recognised more on the
world stage had his national team not been a
relative "minnow". Along with Paul Gascoigne, Best
is held up by UK football fans as an example of
the dark side of the game, where a prodigous
playing talent is squandered by managers and
agents too quick to ignore players' personal
problems. 

==See also==
*UEFA Golden Jubilee Poll
*BBC Sports Personality of the Year Lifetime
Achievement Award

==External links==

*http://www.manutdzone.com/legends/GeorgeBest.htm
George Best: A career profile with pictures from
manutdzone.com
*http://www.compusmart.ab.ca/icorry/BESTPage.htm
George Best Page

start box
succession box|title=European Footballer of the
Year|before=Florian Albert |after=Gianni
Rivera|years=1968
succession box|title=FWA Footballer of the
Year|Football Writers' Association Footballer of
the Year|before=Jack Charlton |after=Tony Book and
Dave Mackay|years=1968
end box