George Best Quotes

They’ll forget all the rubbish when I’ve gone, and they’ll remember the football. If only one person thinks I’m the best player in the world, that’s good enough for me.

Dave Mackay is my definition of a superstar. The man broke his leg three times, but wouldn’t be carried off. He walked off.

There isn’t a single player I would pay to watch. You can say Thierry Henry, he’s a fabulous striker, with pace and power, but a great entertainer needs to have charisma, too. Does he have charisma? No.

David Beckham has never impressed me.

I’ve stopped drinking, but only while I’m asleep.

When I look back on my life as a whole, it is impossible for me not to feel blessed.

Love is about mutual respect, apart from attraction.

I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered.

I have really been disillusioned with soccer in England.

In 1969, I gave up women and alcohol – it was the worst 20 minutes of my life.

I dressed more like a pop star, I suppose, rather than the traditional blazer and tall trousers other players went for.

If I’d been born ugly, you’d never have heard of Pele.

I used to go missing a lot… Miss Canada, Miss United Kingdom, Miss World.

My long hair and the sideburns made me stand out, really, because my hairstyle was completely different to the other footballers of that era.

Just as I wanted to outdo everyone when I played, I had to outdo everyone when we were out on the town.

That thing about being an icon, the fifth Beatle, I just found it so freaky.

I was born with a great gift, and sometimes with that comes a destructive streak.

I have always thought I was the best ever player.

I even found it difficult to watch myself playing on TV because I couldn’t identify with the person on the screen. I couldn’t get to grips with it. It was as if it was all happening to someone else.

Drink is the only opponent I have been unable to beat.

Football is a sad game.

The people of Northern Ireland have sorted out my whole life.

Players today moan about the number of games, but when you’re young, you can’t play enough.

I rate Fabien Barthez and played with two great keepers in Alex Stepney and Harry Gregg.

I always wanted more – more of everything.

I definitely don’t think that money can buy you love. It can buy you affection but certainly not love.

I became a beach bum.

There are good players, there are great players, and there are those few at the pinnacle – the Peles, Cruyffs and Maradonas.

I was the one who took football off the back pages and put it on to page one.

I was 19 or 20 when The Beatles were at their peak, and I was coming up to the peak of my career, too. I was also the first footballer to have long hair, and that’s how I got my nickname ‚the Fifth Beatle.‘

I used to dream about taking the ball ‚round the keeper, stopping it on the line, and then getting on my hands and knees and heading it into the net. When I scored against Benfica in the 1968 European Cup final, I nearly did it. I left the keeper for dead, but then I chickened out.

The nice thing is that when people come up to me, it’s the football they remember, not all the other rubbish.

At the start of the season, there are 16 teams in the top division looking behind them, making sure they avoid relegation. The fear starts in the boardroom, comes down to managers and through to players. The fans sense it.

I’m lucky that, despite all the bad press I’ve had over the years, the public still seems to like me.

It all went wrong with football, the thing I loved most of all, and from there, my life slowly fell apart.

I noticed that when I touched the ball on the field, you could hear this shrill noise in the crowd with all the birds screaming like at a Beatles concert.

I can remember earning £5,000 a game playing for Hibs at the end of the Seventies. They let me commute from London, train on the Friday and play on Saturday. That lasted until my friends at the Inland Revenue decided to take two-thirds. That wasn’t very entertaining for me.

You can’t trust very many people.

I’d have to be superman to do some of the things I’m supposed to have done, I’ve been at six different places at six different times.

I’ve always been a bit of a gypsy.

We were the first generation to have to deal with the modern stardom of football. Some handled it better than others.

I used to rush home to see ‚Match Of The Day.‘ Whatever I was doing, I wouldn’t miss it.

The best thing about being a dad? Well, I think it’s just the thing that every man wants – to have a son and heir.

If you make up your own mind, you can only blame yourself.

I was ill, and everyone could see it but me.

Football is big business – you can’t get away from it. But you have to separate that side from the playing.

Maybe ‚loner‘ is too strong a word, but I’ve always enjoyed being on my own.

People say you have to hit rock bottom, and, I can tell you, almost dying is as rock bottom as it gets.

I got my buzz from playing.

Nobody knows me.

From the FA to UEFA and FIFA, there’s a naivety, a lack of knowledge and understanding and packed with people who are out of touch.

When I was playing, there were always lots of teams in contention for the league – Arsenal, Manchester City, Liverpool, Leeds. Every week was a big game and a big battle.

There are so many memories for me in Manchester. Everywhere I go, I think, ‚I used to have boutiques here, clubs there, restaurants in that area.‘

It’s a big compliment that so many people want to see me. For them, it’s all about football. That’s what they remember about me.

The onus is on the managers to send out an attacking formation and to tell their players to be bold.

I was probably the first footballer ever to have a pop-star profile, and my agent was right when he said we could put my name on stair rods and sell them to people in bungalows.

In England, when an athlete gets to the top, we do our best to destroy him.

As long as I stay in training and play well, I don’t see what objection there can be to what I do off the field.

Players now have a groin injury for months and months, and I often think they don’t really give a toss whether they’re playing or not because they’re getting paid anyway.

One reason I don’t want to play in England again is because we don’t have any personalities.