George Best
A Belfast teenager was so homesick he fled Manchester after two days, then returned to become European Footballer of the Year and the first superstar of British football.
Published
Quick Facts
- Born
- 22 May 1946, Belfast
- Died
- 25 November 2005, London
- Grew up
- Cregagh estate, east Belfast
- Club
- Manchester United (debut 1963)
- Honours
- Two league titles, European Cup 1968, Ballon d'Or 1968
- International
- 37 caps and 9 goals for Northern Ireland
- Nickname
- El Beatle, from the Portuguese press in 1966
- Tribute
- Belfast's city airport carries his name
The telegram that called him a genius
Belfast scout Bob Bishop watched a skinny schoolboy from the Cregagh estate and fired off a message to Manchester United's manager, Matt Busby: "I think I've found you a genius." Best was 15 when he crossed the Irish Sea in 1961. He lasted barely two days in Manchester before he and fellow Belfast recruit Eric McMordie, homesick, caught a boat back home. His father persuaded him to give it another go. It was one of the most important U-turns in football history. Best made his first-team debut against West Bromwich Albion on 14 September 1963, aged 17.
How Lisbon crowned him El Beatle
In March 1966, United travelled to Benfica's Estádio da Luz for a European Cup quarter-final, the home side the overwhelming favourites. Best scored twice early on and United won 5-1. He wore a sombrero on the flight home and the Portuguese papers dubbed him "El Beatle". The name stuck because it fitted. Best had the hair, the looks and the screaming crowds, and he turned football into front-page celebrity news. Before him, British players were mostly local lads in ordinary suits. After him, they could be stars. He opened fashion boutiques, dated Miss World contestants and was followed by photographers everywhere, and none of it made him any less brilliant on the pitch.
The night at Wembley
The peak came on 29 May 1968. United faced Benfica again, this time in the European Cup final at Wembley, a decade after the Munich air disaster had destroyed Busby's first great team. The game went to extra time at 1-1. Within minutes Best had picked up the ball, dribbled around the goalkeeper and rolled it into the empty net. United won 4-1, the first English club to lift the trophy. That year he was named Footballer of the Year in England and won the Ballon d'Or. He was 22. He had already helped United win the league title in 1965 and 1967.
Six goals and a long fall
His talent never needed much room. In February 1970, in an FA Cup tie against Northampton Town, Best scored six goals in an 8-2 win. But the decline was quick. United were no longer a great side, Busby had stepped down, and Best's drinking was becoming public. He missed training, went missing altogether and walked away from the club more than once. His last game for United came on New Year's Day 1974, when he was only 27. There followed a restless second career: Fulham, Los Angeles Aztecs, Fort Lauderdale Strikers, San Jose Earthquakes, Hibernian in Edinburgh and Bournemouth. The skill still flickered, but never for long. In 1984 he served time in prison for drink-driving and assaulting a police officer.
The genius who never saw a World Cup
Best won 37 caps for Northern Ireland and scored nine goals, but he never played at a World Cup. Northern Ireland did not qualify during his international career, which ran from 1964 to 1977. They reached the 1982 finals, by which time he was playing only club football. That gap fed a famous piece of Belfast wall wisdom: "Maradona good, Pelé better, George Best." Whatever your view of it, it sums up how he is remembered at home. His health collapsed after years of alcoholism. He had a liver transplant in 2002 and died in London in November 2005, aged 59.
Where his mark still shows
On 3 December 2005, Belfast came to a standstill. Tens of thousands lined the route as his funeral cortege travelled from the Cregagh house where he grew up to Stormont. In 2006 Belfast City Airport was renamed George Best Belfast City Airport, so thousands of travellers now pass through his name every day. At Old Trafford, a bronze statue called the United Trinity shows him alongside Denis Law and Bobby Charlton. Murals around Belfast keep his face on gable walls, and the airport and the streets of Cregagh remain the best places to feel how much he still matters to the city.
Notable people
- George Best
- Matt Busby
- Bob Bishop
- Eric McMordie
- Denis Law
- Bobby Charlton
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