Well I will only remember George Best for one thing & one thing only.
Hardly surprising really as you weren't born when the Georgie Best they all still talk about was in his prime.
Forget the rather sad person he was to become. That's not the George Best I & many others remember. It's a pity that his club & most of his so-called friends suddenly deserted him when he most needed their help. He was the first professional footballer to become a superstar with nobody to compare himself with. Not that it would have helped as many others have followed similar paths since. Many 60s rock stars led similar similar lives & died long before him. I think this sums it all up.
The first pop-star footballer
Nicknamed "the fifth Beatle", he was one of the most famous stars in Britain during the 1960s. Best was the first pop-star footballer, a personification of youth culture and the swinging sixties. At times he was getting 10,000 fan letters a week, something that had never happened to a footballer before. Sadly it was this pop star image that proved his eventual downfall, for he began to live the lifestyle of a pop star, and not a footballer. The alcohol, women and wild nights spent partying would ultimately shorten his career and lead to severe health problems later on.
As he became a casualty of intense media attention, George could not concentrate on football without being hounded everywhere by paparazzi. He opened a night club and a number of fashion boutiques which were not a success, while a string of famous actress/model girlfriend's meant he was under incredible media scrutiny. Once Sir Matt Busby retired in 1969 it was downhill for the Ulsterman as he became increasingly rebellious and erratic. Busby's successors, Frank O'Farrell and Tommy Docherty lacked his fatherly influence on Best who was now frequently missing training and failing to turn up for games. After a series of on-off retirements and a dip in form, George left United for good on New Years Day 1974, his final game against QPR.
Conclusion
There are many regrets for Best, such as ending his career early and never displaying his phenomenal skills in the World Cup Finals. However, when you look at the positive things he brought to British football, the moments of sheer breath-taking excitement, the glory of 1968, the lifestyle he led, George Best has lived more than most of us ever will. Lets also not forget he played for 11 seasons at United - few modern day players will have a career as long in the red shirt. The classic story of the wayward genius who had it all and supposedly threw it all away, people who say this do not realise that it was this wild self-destructive streak that made him the player he was. Genius often goes hand in hand with some sort of eccentric quality, a quality that gives that creative spark others do not possess. And, George Best was the ultimate genius, a player that took the game to a different level, a level which mere footballing mortals can only gaze up at, in wonder, awe and sheer exhilaration.
I'm no football fan by any stretch of the imagination but even I knew that Georgie Best was something very special. In his heyday he really was the Best. That's how I prefer to remember him.
PS.
http://www.manutdzone.com/legends/GeorgeBest.htm
