George Best - R.I.P

"I spent a lot of my money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered." :mryellow:

"I used to go missing a lot... Miss Canada, Miss United Kingdom, Miss World." :mrgreen:

"I was in for 10 hours and had 40 pints - beating my previous record by 20 minutes." :lol:

"I've stopped drinking, but only while I'm asleep." :lmao:

what a legend... R.I.P.
 
good night and god bless george.
if anybody lives in the north west you should get down to the national football museum at deepdale where there is an exhibition about the great man.boots ,shirts and even his european footballer of the year award.
 
Those who burn brightest, burn for a short time IMO.

A genius footballer.

A great giver to charity, generous to a fault with his fans, even though it must have brassed him off people he didn't know following him everywhere.

Sadly, the demon drink meant he was Jekyll and Hyde. All those good points but also an alcoholic, womaniser and wife-beater.

We have good and bad in all of us, just some of us more extreme than others.

I'd like to pay tribute to him as a footballer only. George - God's gift to football.
 
Joystick said:
"I spent a lot of my money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered." :mryellow:
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Have to admit, that was class, remember that. :mrgreen:

Btw, someone mentioned about him wasting his 2nd chance, think that's more appropriate than his initial life.


FD
 
To sad to heard that. :'(

Fantastic football player, now will play in heaven.

Rest in Peace.
 
RIP. Imagine if he'd carried on playing past 28. He hadnt even reached his peak yet.
 
The nation of Northern Ireland has lost an icon, and I have lost a hero. Despite never having met the man or even seen him play live (I'm far too young to have) I can't help feeling a deep sense of loss now that he's passed on.
Seeing how much he meant to everyone in this country really brought it home how big a loss it is, watching the minutes' silences and applause I couldn't help but get a lump in my throat.
Judging him as a footballer, he had no equal. Maradona is the only player that I think has come close to him, but watching footage of him is truly an aesthetic delight - considering the state of the pitches he played on, with the weight of the ball and of the boots he wore, his dribbling ability was nothing short of amazing.
It cannot be denied that George was a flawed character - and who can honestly saw they aren't? - but like it has been pointed out, alcoholism is a disease. Consider this - George Best is walking down a London high street in 1990. A stranger stops him, and says; "George, let me buy you a drink." How difficult must it have been for Best as a recovering alcoholic to refuse a drink (and there must have been plenty offered)?
Since hearinf of his death on Friday, I've been truly saddened. I've quite my part-time job so that I can attend his funeral on Saturday and pay my respects to what was, without doubt, the greatest natural talent and most exciting player ever to come out of our wee country, and the most amazing player who ever played in Britain.

"I hope your boots are clean, Georgie. Sir Matt wants you to play this Saturday."

May he forever rest in peace.
 
RuneEdge said:
RIP. Imagine if he'd carried on playing past 28. He hadnt even reached his peak yet.
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OMG dude, he played in the states after that age for many years... i dont understand why nobody recognizes that, played against pele, beckenbauer, etc...
 
Though his career after United lasted as long as it did before, it was effectively over by the time he reached the States. You have to remember that the NASL was in no way the same standard or attracted the same sort of enthusiasm that MLS does today. By the time Best left San Jose in '81 (after his third spell) he was a shadow of the man who captivated the world in the later 60's and early 70's.

Not that I'm trying to play the 'hard done by' card, but I honestly feel that if Best had have been from Italy or Brazil, rather than unfashionable Northern Ireland, we wouldn't even be talking about Pele or Maradona being better players. It's pointless to say that Pele's goal record speaks for itself and was far superior to Best's - yes, it was, but Pele scored almost every single club goal in the Brazillian Championship where, even to this day, defences don't exist, while Best scored most of his at arguably the highest level. Also consider that Best played as a winger, while Pele was a striker.

Out of interest, I can't have been the only person moved by the tribute at Old Trafford tonight. I'm not a United fan, but as an Ulsterman I feel such a sense of loss and regret that I never got to see the great man perform at his peak - I've grown up with the papers reporting on George Best the alcoholic, while my dad grew up with George Best the footballer - and we both had lumps in our throats during the tributes.

A remarkably gifted man. A true legend.
 
adielaird said:
Though his career after United lasted as long as it did before, it was effectively over by the time he reached the States. You have to remember that the NASL was in no way the same standard or attracted the same sort of enthusiasm that MLS does today. By the time Best left San Jose in '81 (after his third spell) he was a shadow of the man who captivated the world in the later 60's and early 70's.

Not that I'm trying to play the 'hard done by' card, but I honestly feel that if Best had have been from Italy or Brazil, rather than unfashionable Northern Ireland, we wouldn't even be talking about Pele or Maradona being better players. It's pointless to say that Pele's goal record speaks for itself and was far superior to Best's - yes, it was, but Pele scored almost every single club goal in the Brazillian Championship where, even to this day, defences don't exist, while Best scored most of his at arguably the highest level. Also consider that Best played as a winger, while Pele was a striker.

Out of interest, I can't have been the only person moved by the tribute at Old Trafford tonight. I'm not a United fan, but as an Ulsterman I feel such a sense of loss and regret that I never got to see the great man perform at his peak - I've grown up with the papers reporting on George Best the alcoholic, while my dad grew up with George Best the footballer - and we both had lumps in our throats during the tributes.

A remarkably gifted man. A true legend.
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im gonna have to disagree with you, the early NASL when best started playing there, had the best talent in the world, in one league, pele, cryuff, beckenbauer, too name a few, they were selling out 80,000 seat stadiums in NY and DC. For comparison, imagine Ballack, Ronaldhino, Sheva, totti, rooney and the like all went to play in the MLS, thats a fair comparison to the NASL...
 
csaunders said:
im gonna have to disagree with you, the early NASL when best started playing there, had the best talent in the world, in one league, pele, cryuff, beckenbauer, too name a few, they were selling out 80,000 seat stadiums in NY and DC. For comparison, imagine Ballack, Ronaldhino, Sheva, totti, rooney and the like all went to play in the MLS, thats a fair comparison to the NASL...
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It had a lot of players with big reputations who, much like the big foreign players playing in MLS, were winding down their careers and, at the risk of sounding cynical, looking for one last big pay-day.

I'm not arguing that NASL hosted players who, at one stage or another, were some of the biggest in the world - Eusebio, Gordon Banks, Beckenbauer, Johna Cruyff, Pele and Bobby Moore were some of it's biggest players - but like has been mentioned, these players were in the twilight of their careers and, I'm sure, laughed all the way to the bank during their time in America. Your comparison of Ballack, Ronaldinho etc. playing in MLS is silly - yes, maybe in 10 years time but now while in the prime of their careers. NASL was held in as low, if not lower, regard as MLS is today (that's not me criticising US soccer - I'm a big fan of the development of the game over there, and maintain that they will win a World Cup by the year 2020, as long as the pace of progression of the domestic game picks up).

While I'm uncertain of your claims that matches were 80,000 sell-outs - I'm not disputing this, I just can't find anything to back it up - I can tell you that at no stage did the average attendance of NASL matches rise about 15,000. During Best's first spell in the league (1976) it was about half that figure.
 
i went round to his dad's house the other night - loads of scarfs and stuff on the hedge outside his house. my son's grandfather left in some flowers...

are you going to the funeral, adielaird? they reckon 500,000 people will be there... i just hope it's a pleasant day.
 
MonkeyJug - I probably will go, yeah. I don't start work 'til 2pm tomorrow so I think I could be up there early and back home in time to go to work. It'll be such an immense, amazing occasion and I can't imagine there being any trouble or anything. 500,000 people, while it seems very high (1 in 3 people in the entire country) is entirely possible I feel. He meant so much to so many people in this country and, despite his problems, you'll find very few people with a bad word to say about him. Will you be there?
 
Didn't make it to Belfast - a mate was supposed to be picking me up at eight but he slept through his alarms and still wasn't awake at half nine. Felt very let down, but I watched it on the telly. Fantastic service, heartwrenching at times and I'm not ashamed or embarassed to say I was in tears at times. The only bit of the service I wasn't fond of was the over the top, Free Presbyterian preaching. Was the funeral broadcast in England/Scotland/Wales?

Anyway, a truly magnificent send-off for Geordie. Northern Ireland's favourite son, and Northern Ireland did you proud. Even pouring rain couldn't stop thousands of people turning out - 25,000 in the grounds of Stormont alone, and about another 15,000 on the route. Magnificent, everything he deserved.

Rest in Peace.
 
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