"George Best will always be remembered as a drunk who put two fingers up at the great work carried out by those involved in organ donation. Someone's life could have been saved with that transplant.

A number of people returned their donor cards thanks to him."


George Best started out in football as an incredible footballer..There has never been anyone who has surpassed his natural and unique talent, in my opinion.

Little by little he became a 'celebrity'...this shy lad from Ireland with the film star looks....and everyone wanted to buy him a drink...Ask Michael Parkinson, who was a good and dear friend of George Best for most of his life. It saddened Parky deeply to watch this brilliant footballer and lovely man slowly turning into an alcoholic, because he never liked to upset people, never liked to say "No, thanks" when folks were almost beside themselves in their rush to get him a drink.....

And so...he drank..and drank...and drank, until he became totally addicted, not just to alcohol, but to fame...and little by little his downslide began.....and all those who had built his upslide, now sat round like the Guillotine Knitters, knitting his downslide..tuttutting, shaking their heads...

Do you know what it's like to be an alcoholic, Richie? Do you understand the self loathing, the self disgust, the terror, the fear, the tremors, the addiction?   

He tried so hard to fight it...and lost...finally losing that final battle.

Yes, George played a big part in his own downfall, but the whole thing was started for him by the adoring public, who, like you, chewed him up and spat him out at the end of his life...

Maybe George couldn't cope with having the liver of another person inside him...did you ever think of that? They can get you to fill in forms, counsel you till the cows come home to see if you're 'suitable' material for the transplant material...but at the end of the day, you have to spend the rest of your days knowing the someone died, to give you life and part of them is inside you...and perhaps that freaked George out...

Maybe it was his marriage finally caving in, despite his lovely wife having stood by him for so long...

Maybe he simply lost the will to live..and being in the spotlight again, this time for his liver transplant, became just too much too bear.....

George Best was a brilliant footballer and a lovely man. Sadly, the Beautiful Game took him down Ugly Paths, but he wasn't a bad person, he wasn't a selfish oik.....

Parkinson met the rich and famous of the world, interviewed thousands of people, could spot the phoneys and the bastards with his eyes closed, but he always held George close to his heart...and that, I think, says FAR more than you could ever hope to say about a man you never even knew.

The George Best Foundation

And if you read this, you'll get an idea that perhaps George was 'on the circle', a brilliant talent, intelligent, but very quiet, shy almost at times...often unable to put his feelings into words...Alcohol numbs the pain, the fear......

Michael talking about George

"..George Best was sometimes a difficult man to defend in the aftermath of a drunken episode.

What was never a problem was to talk of his genius as a player and to love him as a friend.

That was easy."