In March 2000 (yes, 20 years ago) George Best was admitted to the Cromwell Hospital, Cromwell Road, for the first time. Despite various efforts to change his way of life and to heal him, his body was a "bloated parody", he needed a liver transplant, became susceptible to infection and in October with a kidney problem, he had internal bleeding. Having taking an overdose of "immuno suppressive" drugs, prescribed post his kidney operation, on the 25th of November 2005, George died. His father had died in Northern Ireland aged 88 and his mother from an alcohol related illness, died aged 55.
He had, to all effects, "drunk himself to death", trying to escape his superstar status. Dealing with the press and his fame, life had become even more difficult for him, following his father's death in the late 1970s.
No fool, he was academically gifted and was educated at the local Belfast "grammar school" where rugby was the main game. He played truant until he joined the neighbouring secondary school, with his footballing mates. Bob Bishop, a United scout saw Best playing at 15 years old and alerted Busby to this potential star player. Becoming a trainee, away from home, at Old Trafford, was not easy and he suffered from homesickness. This was soon remedied when he was "adopted" by a United employed landlady, who kept an eye out for him and Best made his first class debut at 17 years old, on September 14th 1963. This was against West Bromwich Albion in a 1-0 win.
Best then made a second first team appearance on December 28th v Burnley, scoring a goal in a 5-1 win. Busby then gave Best a regular berth in the first team. United failed to get into the 1964 FA Cup final when United lost to West Ham in the semi-final. The Hammers went on to meet Preston, for whom Howard Kendall played. Kendall became the youngest player to play in an FA Cup final having been born on May 22nd 1946. This was exactly the same birth date as Best!
Signed by Matt Busby, as a 19 year old, he was part of the rebuild of United following the Munich disaster, mind you this tradgedy ten years earlier. Despite Busby's father like attention, lessons were not learned and by Best's 27th birthday, he had turned his back on football and tried to live a "celebrity" life, without the complications. Not possible!!! as he was pursued relentlessly, by hangers on, prhess, women and so on. Mind you he didn't help himself!
Michael Parkinson interviewed Best on many occasions, even during Best's imprisonment. On better days, Best visited the journalist's home and always brought a ball with him to play with the family in the garden. Best employed 3 secretaries to deal with his 10,000 fan letters each week and Parkinson soon realised that George was intelligent, shy and exploited. Early on in his career, Best had been given no help on how to cope with all this fame. So Best was the first "super star" who couldn't handle the lifestyle sensibly. He was quoted as saying on the Parkinson show; " I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars, the rest I just squandered."
Parkinson offered Best the use of his personal house, so he could avoid the coachloads of "day trippers" visiting Best's home, looking for a glimpse of the footballing "legend".
As a coincidence, at 4.30pm today, I have heard from the South American news' man Tim Vickery, that Diego Maradona has just died from a blood clot in the brain, having been in hospital after a heart attack. Vickery feels that the discipline of work at his club, was what kept him alive. The "LOCKDOWN" in Argentina, will not have helped Maradona deal with his demons. He was 60.
With a "low centre of gravity" Maradona was able to remake the history of football in South America (and indeed in the rest of the World). At this time, before the crack down by referees on the "physical tackles" had not occurred. Look at the World Cup when Maradona was trying his best to play his game without a lot of protection from the refs. Even the English tried to give him terrible stick, not that this stopped the little chap.
No comments:
Post a Comment