Here are the best quotes from George Best, one of the best players in the history of football, born in Belfast and whose best years were at Manchester United. George Best (May 22, 1946 - November 25, 2005) was a professional footballer from Northern Ireland who played as a winger for Manchester United and the Northern Ireland national team.
Born in Belfast, Best began his career in 1963 with Manchester United. He led United to two First Division titles and the 1968 European Cup, earning the title of European footballer of the year.
His lifestyle led to a rapid decline in his performance, and after leaving United in 1974, he continued his career with various clubs in England and the US. After soccer, he spent some time as an analyst and commentator, but his financial and health problems continued in his retirement. He died of causes related to alcoholism in 2005 at the age of 59.
Best is considered one of the greatest dribblers of all time. He was one of the first footballers to be considered "celebrity", earning the nickname "The Beatle."
His biggest barrier was his extravagant lifestyle, which led to various problems, most notably alcoholism, which he suffered for much of his life.
Other curiosities of Best
- Although in 1957 (11 years old), he was awarded for being a good student at the Grosvenor Grammar School, he soon abandoned his studies to dedicate himself to rugby.
- He never played a World Cup or a European Championship; Northern Ireland failed to qualify.
- He played on three US teams: the Los Angeles Aztecs, the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, the San Jose Earthquakes, and the Detroit Express.
- He scored 254 goals in his entire career.
- He received the Ballon d'Or in 1968.
- The fame of Georgie or Bestie was such that he was considered the first superstar and many referred to him as the fifth Beatle. He became a star that received more than 10,000 letters per week.
You may also be interested in these football phrases or these from Pelé.
His best phrases
-I was born with a great gift and sometimes that comes with a destructive streak.
-In 1969 I gave up women and drinking, but they were the worst twenty minutes of my life.
-If you form your own mind, you can only blame yourself.
-If football is an art, then I am an artist.
-I spent a lot of money on cars, women and alcohol. The rest I just wasted.
-I always wanted more, more of everything.
-I stopped drinking, but only while I'm asleep.
-When I leave, people will forget all the garbage and will only remember football.
-Love is about mutual respect, apart from attraction.
- Every time I enter a place there are sixty people who want to invite me to drink, and I can't say no.
-Football is a sad game.
-Maybe 'lonely' is too strong a word, but I've always enjoyed being alone.
-Don't die like me.
-You can't trust many people.
-If I had been born ugly, you would not have heard of Pelé.
-My main goal is for my father to think I was the best, and he does.
-I had a house on the coast, but to go to the beach you had to walk past a bar. I never bathed.
-I never went out in the morning with the intention of getting drunk. It just happened.
-Pelé said that he thought I was the best player in history. I've always thought he was the best player, it's the way you have to see it. I have never looked at another player and I have felt inferior.
-I definitely don't think money can buy love. It can buy affection, but not love.
-It's not nice to be in prison.
-I became a beach bum.
-If there is one thing in my life that I do not care about, it is money… friends, football… women… they are what I care about.
-I was born with a great talent, and sometimes, that talent comes along with a destructive streak.
-… they don't have anything unfortunately, I wish they had it… it's a shame because I still love football, I love it and now when I see it I have no idea what they are doing, and I see the coach and I have no idea what is talking.
-I have as many girlfriends as there are grains in the sand on the beach, that's why I'm quitting football.
-Just as I wanted to pass over whoever stood in front of me when I played football, I wanted to pass over whoever stood in front of me when I went out to have fun at night.
-I can attend Alcoholics Anonymous, but it will be difficult for me to be anonymous.
-It may be true that I was the first footballer with a pop star biography.
-My manager was right when he said that it would be possible for them to engrave my name on stair treads and sell them even to people who live in single-story houses.
-I don't even remember what I did last night.
-It's funny when journalists talk about my life… and they see me as a fallen idol. They're sitting in an office from nine to five, and I don't know how much they make, but I go out and get paid five thousand pounds for an interview. So I say: who is down now?
-Advertising was a great monster. Make announcements of all kinds. He went to the movies and was chased by the crowd. I was the first footballer to experience that, there were no precedents and at just 22 years old, I didn't know how to handle it.
-I was never better than most kids my age in Belfast.
-The first soccer game I had… was when I was a boy who had never played in front of more than 200 people before.
-After my first game… I came home for Christmas… and the best part was reading my name in the Belfast newspaper.
-Football in the sixties was a lot of fun… I really enjoyed it, I was still a kid who was doing something that I loved and had gotten to get paid for it.
-When I joined United… the manager was always nice.
-After a while of having lunches, being at my house… I decided it was time to go out and be a superstar.
-The sixties… looking back I can say that they were the best ten years of my life.
-I only played thirty-seven times for my country.
-As long as I continue training and play well, I don't see what objection there may be to what I do outside the football stadium.
-When I look back on my life as a whole, it is hard for me not to feel blessed.
-We never qualified for the World Cup… when I was a kid, when I was 17 we failed twice to qualify for the World Cup and that was a big, big disappointment.
-One of the biggest disappointments of my life was never reaching the World Cup final.
-My long hair and sideburns made me stand out, actually, because my hairstyle was completely different from other footballers of the time.
-I was 19 or 20 years old when The Beatles were in their prime and at that moment I was at the peak of their career… and the press began to call me the fifth Beatle.
-I loved reading about myself in the newspapers.
-They say that I slept with seven mises, but I only slept with three.
-There are good players, there are great players, and there are few players at the top: the Peles, the Cruyffs and the Maradonas.
-I've always been a bit of a gypsy.
-Nobody knows me.
-I would have to be a superman to do some things they say I did, I've been to six different places at six different times.
-Alcohol is the only opponent I could never beat.
-What's the best thing about being a father? Well, I think it's all that every man wants: to have a son and an heir.
-From the FA to UEFA and Fifa, there is great naivety, a lack of knowledge and understanding and it is full of people who are out of touch.
-David Beckham never impressed me.
-When I touched the ball in the stadium, you could hear the shrill noise of the crowd… like at a Beatles concert.
-There is not a single player that I would pay to watch him play. You can say that Thierry Henry is an excellent striker, with pace and power, but a great artist also needs charisma. Does he have charisma? Not.
-I have no regrets. I made all my decisions.
-Dave Mackay is my definition of a superstar. The man broke his leg three times, but he was not carried away loaded, he walked away.
-The good thing is that when people approach me, it is football that they remember, not the rest of the garbage.
-I've been lucky that, despite all the bad press I've had over the years, the public still likes me.
-Everything went wrong with football… and from there, my life fell apart.
-We were the first generation to have to deal with the modern fame of football. Some handled it better than others.
-When I played, there were always many teams in dispute for the league. Arsenal, Manchester City, Liverpool, Leeds. Every week was a great game and a great battle.
-There are many memories for me in Manchester. Everywhere I go, I think, I had boutiques here, clubs and restaurants in that area.