True Genius: George Best

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Best played in a friendly for Newry Town against Shamrock Rovers in August 1983, [80] before ending his professional career exactly 20 years after joining Manchester United with a brief four-match stint playing for the Brisbane Lions in the Australian National Soccer League during the 1983 season. This is one of the themes of David Peace's Bill Shankly novel Red or Dead, which reimagines football as a kind of primitive, incantatory rite, with the manager as its arch-druid. Fellow Manchester United legend Eric Cantona gave a eulogy to Best: "I would love him to save me a place in his team, George Best that is, not God. There have been many books written about George, but here, Michael Parkinson combines his professional and personal knowledge of George with his classic and much loved writing style to produce a new, and interesting biography of a football and cultural icon.

The odour of sanctity is as powerful as the smell of liniment that rises from the dressing room floor. Written before George Best's transplant and then untimely death, it was extremely sad to know where the story was to go and what life he lead. One of the most famous footballers of all time, George Best is an icon to football fans all over the world. No doubt in football, as in anything else, and to reprise Pete Townshend's often-quoted lyrics, the simple things you see are often horribly complicated, but the short sporting life and fast times of George Best (1946-2005) have never seemed particularly difficult to unravel.Best scored twice against rivals Liverpool in a 2–0 win at Anfield, and also claimed a hat-trick over Newcastle United in a 6–0 home win on the penultimate league game of the season.

Playing only five competitive matches for Jewish Guild in South Africa, Best endured criticism for missing several training sessions. Best's lovable, cheeky image won him many fans, during his career and after, despite his public drunkenness on TV, his convictions for drunk driving and assaulting a policeman, allegations of domestic violence, and his inability to give up drinking even after the transplant. In September 1990, Best appeared on the primetime BBC chat show Wogan in which he was heavily drunk and swore, at one point saying to the host, "Terry, I like screwing". He scored the opening goal of the 1965 FA Charity Shield at Old Trafford, which ended in a 2–2 draw with Liverpool.Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously. On 29 October 1984, Best played as a special guest for Reading against the New Zealand national team in a friendly game, alongside 1966 World Cup winner Martin Peters. You could saw his legs away and he still wouldn't fall because his balance was uncanny, almost supernatural. Frustrated with the club's decline, Best went missing in December to party at the London nightclubs. Although am not a Man Utd fan is was disappointing to hear of the malaise that set in on the Man Utd squad so soon after the European Cup Triumph .