Manchester United and Northern Ireland’s George Best: The Best Footballer Ever?
George Best, the Irish footballer who played for Manchester United, was known as one of the greatest players of his generation. Some even said that he was the best player to ever play the game of football. He was a fantastic goal-scorer for whichever team he played for. The interesting thing about the man was that he was the first footballer to achieve celebrity status. He was known for partying, drinking and socialising. His drinking eventually got the better of him and he was forced to retire from football due to his alcoholism. Best was later given a controversial liver transplant but developed complications because of it a few years later and died. This very interesting football star had a very interesting life that needs to be explored further.
George Best started to play football at a young age. He showed immense talent as a youngster and was eventually snapped up by Manchester United at the young age of 15. He must have been a phenomenal talent to have been recruited at such a young age by a top English club. Best was a great dribbler of the ball and a menace for defenders to keep up with. He scored a total of 208 goals during his illustrious career, and played in over 500 matches. He was one of the first true stars for Manchester United and greatly aided the club in its quest to becoming one of the best in the world. During his time at United, he led the side to a European Championship win in 1966 and was named the European Footballer of the Year that same year. This was his golden period and he showed the world that a footballer can also become a celebrity.
Best was known almost as much for his off-the-field antics as he was for his match-winning performances. He became the first football celebrity in the UK and was known for being a party animal. He crossed over into the world of popular culture and was seen at all the parties and social gatherings. The media loved to follow his every move and he was even dubbed the fifth Beatle by the press because of his good looks, long hair and rock star lifestyle. It was around this time that the great football player started to generate controversies. Fans felt that he spent more time partying and less time playing football, and many claimed that he had a serious drinking problem. It was during his party years that he developed a serious love affair with alcohol and the relationship did not end until his death in 2005. He developed a massive drinking problem and he became an alcoholic during his life. The alcohol addiction got so bad that it started to affect his playing as well. He retired from the game in 1984 and a lot of people speculated that it was his alcoholism that forced his retirement.
One of the biggest controversies surrounding the great footballer’s life was the fact that in 2002, he was given a liver transplant. The problem stemmed from the fact that a lot of people felt that he was bumped up the waiting list of transplant recipients because he was famous. Many ordinary people felt that they should have been given a liver transplant because they had been waiting a very long time. It seemed unfair to them that Best was given a new liver before them. The other problem was that a lot of people felt that it was also unfair to give alcoholics a new liver when people were waiting for years with problems that were not caused by something that they had done to themselves. Best started to develop other problems from the drugs he was given to suppress the new liver being rejected by his body. He eventually died from massive organ failure in 2005. A huge number of fans and well-wishers came out to mourn the loss of a great football legend.
Whatever Best did during his life, he will always be remembered for the great football he played and the amazing record he managed to notch up for United. Even though he was a controversial sports star, he will go down in the history books as one of the best football players ever to emerge from the UK.
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