We’re superfans of George Best because:
The Belfast boy had been Manchester United’s starplayer from 1963 to 1973 – Sport speech done!
Alonside his sport carrer, his natural charism, his dedication to fashion and his quite long hair (for those times) granted him the title of fifth beatle…
By 1965, he appeared dancing on the BBC show Top of the Pops, for the first appearance of the Rolling Stones.
In 1966, he opened the very first of his fashion stores, “Edwardia”. Later, he would own a travel agency and two discotheques.
He’d been suspend by his own club for loosing (willfully) the train for a match as he prefered to spend the week-end with the actress Sinéad Cusack.
As a proof of his sense of humour, he used to comment his dissolute life with sentences as “I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered.” or “In 1969 I gave up women and alcohol – it was the worst 20 minutes of my life.”
Paying his excesses, he died of various alcoolism related diseases on November the 25th of 2005. He was 59 . His last message was maybe the most serious of his whole life: “Don’t die like me.”.
Belfast airport has its name and the Ulster Bank emited a 5 pounds note with his image.
During the week after his death, the minutes of silence that were programmed in all football stadiums over the country were turned spontaneously into minutes of applause by the crowd.
Suming-up, from the beggining to the end, George Best was the very first sportsman acting as a rockstar!