HOME | POLITICS | SPORTS | LIFE | SCI/TECH | OPEDS | HELPFUL TIPS
|
Nov. 25, 2005 George Best may not be a name very well known to our North American readers. However, between 1963 and 1974, his was a name that was constantly spilling off the tongue of soccer fans the world over--and particularly in his British homeland. In 1966 Pele described Best as the greatest living footballer. If that was a lot to live up to, it never showed at the time. However, post 1974 his decline became rapid and terminal. I guess this is a kind of obituary, because George Best has just died in the London Cromwell Hospital after a series of complications set in relating to the liver transplant he had in 2002. Troubled by alcoholism for most of his life, George was unable to stop drinking even after his transplant, and it is very likely that this had something to do with the eventual "complications". A few months ago, he had also been divorced from his 27 year old wife. It was left to his 87 year old father and 24 year old son, Callum, to steer him through his last moments on this earth. George Best was born in 1946 in Northern Ireland and played his first game for Manchester United in 1963 when he was just 17. Subsequently he was to play for the "Red Devils" for a further 11 years and by the time he was sacked for drunkenness and persistently missing training in 1974, he'd played around 400 games for United and scored about 180 goals. His greatest years were probably 1963, 1965 and 1968. In the first two of these years United won the English Championship and in 1968, they became the first English club to win the European Cup. Best played with sublime skill in that game against Benfica and Eusebio. In the same year, he was proclaimed European Footballer of the Year. His fame and playboy lifestyle had become so famous that he became known as the fifth Beatle. He could play on the wing or in central midfield with equal effectiveness and although he scored a lot of goals, he was never an out and out striker. After United, he played for Stockport and Fulham in England--and even had a spell in the USA, before finally retiring at the age of 37. Not everybody loved George. Some believed that he had squandered a God given talent with too much booze, and too many beautiful women. However, although he was only 28 when he left United, he'd already been with them for over a decade and his greatest year had come in 1968, when he was only 22! Some people achieve most in their younger years--and George was one of these. Others, more recently have condemned George for his alcohol abuse and apparent indifference to the sufferings of the loved ones around him. This would seem to be a rather ungracious prying into the private troubles of a declining man. The scriptural tenet still seems apt: "Let him who is without sin be the first to cast a stone." George Best was a sublime genius. May he rest in peace! ------------ About the author Jon Aristides: Read, 'The Black Scarab of Amun-Ra'. Visit www.jon-aristides.net Email: aristidesjon2001@yahoo.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
