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George Best: Tribute to a Legend
Was George Best the greatest soccer player ever? Certainly he was the first truly international superstar of the game. With Best’s death at age 59 on November 25, 2005,football fans will appreciate even more this complete story — and celebration —of his life.
The riveting narration, with a showcase of 130 photos, covers little-known facts about his youth through his most mesmerizing on-field feats (including two League Championships and one European Cup triumph), as well as the celebrity lifestyle that destroyed his career.
Although it’s been decades since Best’s last game, the football world will long remember the wonder boy from Belfast.
The riveting narration, with a showcase of 130 photos, covers little-known facts about his youth through his most mesmerizing on-field feats (including two League Championships and one European Cup triumph), as well as the celebrity lifestyle that destroyed his career.
Although it’s been decades since Best’s last game, the football world will long remember the wonder boy from Belfast.
- GenresSports
120 pages, Hardcover
First published December 12, 2006
14 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 18, 2021
If I had not been brought up watching Stanley Matthews at Blackpool, I imagine, having seen Best live on a number of occasions and often on television, that I would be subscribing to the view of many former players - Pele called him 'the greatest footballer in the world - that he was the greatest ever player. But, and I admit I am probably biased, Stan was the best but George Best is certainly up there with the greatest that I ever saw.
Alex Ferguson provides a foreword in which he states, 'He was such a special player, a phenomenal player, and I think I speak for everyone associated with Manchester United when I say he has left us with a million memories, all of them good ones, too. A footballer born with a mesmerising craft that left an indelible mark on people's lives.' And the eulogies continue throughout the book as there are quotes from plenty of his contemporaries alongside the 130 photographs that illuminate the latter part of the book.
In between, David Meek, who was lucky enough to follow Best's career as the football correspondent of the Manchester Evening News, writes a comprehensive 'Story of a Legend' account of Best's life and career, beginning with him growing up in the suburbs of Belfast and then his lodging with landlady Mary Fullaway as a shy young Irishman in Manchester. He was so shy that he initially returned home with his friend Eric McMordie as the pair could not come to grips with being away from home. Fortunately for everyone, Best returned to begin his career with Manchester United for whom he played 466 games and scored 178 goals [McMordie also returned later to join Middlesbrough].
Along the way there are bounteous comments from the players he mingled with in his early days, particularly a young David Sadler, with whom he lodged. I was pleased to see one comment from Sadler, who said 'George's greatest strength was that he didn't have a weakness', adding, 'He could tackle and defend as well as anyone'. I saw evidence of that last phrase at a third-place FA Cup game at Highbury in April 1970 when, early in the game United left back Tony Dunne was injured and had to retire, George went to left back and he looked as though he was born to the position; it his performance in United's 2-0 victory was something I have never forgotten.
His European successes are discussed at length and his 'Troubled Times' are briefly touched upon but in relation to these events, the legendary Harry Gregg's comments should be borne in mind when he said, 'From the first time I met him in 1962 until I left in '67, he was always a pleasant, well-mannered young man' and one of Best's greatest admirers was Bobby Charlton.
His premature departure from Old Trafford, and subsequent return to the club (sadly too short-lived) and his later career with lower League clubs and then in the American Soccer League are all covered before the bewildering array of photographs, action and personal, show what an icon he was during his lifetime, which was all too short (1946-2005).
It is a book that grips the football fan, and it will grip others too, and once begun it is difficult to put it down; I read it in one sitting on the afternoon I bought it - yesterday!
Alex Ferguson provides a foreword in which he states, 'He was such a special player, a phenomenal player, and I think I speak for everyone associated with Manchester United when I say he has left us with a million memories, all of them good ones, too. A footballer born with a mesmerising craft that left an indelible mark on people's lives.' And the eulogies continue throughout the book as there are quotes from plenty of his contemporaries alongside the 130 photographs that illuminate the latter part of the book.
In between, David Meek, who was lucky enough to follow Best's career as the football correspondent of the Manchester Evening News, writes a comprehensive 'Story of a Legend' account of Best's life and career, beginning with him growing up in the suburbs of Belfast and then his lodging with landlady Mary Fullaway as a shy young Irishman in Manchester. He was so shy that he initially returned home with his friend Eric McMordie as the pair could not come to grips with being away from home. Fortunately for everyone, Best returned to begin his career with Manchester United for whom he played 466 games and scored 178 goals [McMordie also returned later to join Middlesbrough].
Along the way there are bounteous comments from the players he mingled with in his early days, particularly a young David Sadler, with whom he lodged. I was pleased to see one comment from Sadler, who said 'George's greatest strength was that he didn't have a weakness', adding, 'He could tackle and defend as well as anyone'. I saw evidence of that last phrase at a third-place FA Cup game at Highbury in April 1970 when, early in the game United left back Tony Dunne was injured and had to retire, George went to left back and he looked as though he was born to the position; it his performance in United's 2-0 victory was something I have never forgotten.
His European successes are discussed at length and his 'Troubled Times' are briefly touched upon but in relation to these events, the legendary Harry Gregg's comments should be borne in mind when he said, 'From the first time I met him in 1962 until I left in '67, he was always a pleasant, well-mannered young man' and one of Best's greatest admirers was Bobby Charlton.
His premature departure from Old Trafford, and subsequent return to the club (sadly too short-lived) and his later career with lower League clubs and then in the American Soccer League are all covered before the bewildering array of photographs, action and personal, show what an icon he was during his lifetime, which was all too short (1946-2005).
It is a book that grips the football fan, and it will grip others too, and once begun it is difficult to put it down; I read it in one sitting on the afternoon I bought it - yesterday!
January 21, 2020
This is a nice tribute to George Best, one of the best football (soccer) players ever. David Meek wrote a nice heart felt tribute of George's life and then there are over 90 some pages of photos of George.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews