Profile
George Best came from Belfast to Manchester United as a teenager and became the club's great 1960s phenomenon. He was not just a winger and not just a forward. He was a dribbler, scorer and improviser whose best games made elite football look personal, as if defenders were problems for him alone to solve.
Best's rise under Matt Busby coincided with United's return to the top of English and European football. In the Law-Charlton-Best attack, he supplied the unpredictable element: starting wide, driving inside, beating players at speed and still arriving with enough composure to finish. The 1968 European Cup and Ballon d'Or confirmed the level he had reached.
His playing style was built on balance more than tricks. Best could ride contact, change direction sharply and shoot with either foot. He gave United glamour, but the glamour came from football substance: goals, assists, crowd-lifting moments and the ability to alter how opponents defended before he had even touched the ball.
The sadness is that the peak was shorter than the talent deserved. Off-field pressure, missed training and a deteriorating relationship with the demands of elite football pulled him away from United while he was still young. Later spells with clubs in Britain, Ireland, the United States and Australia added chapters, but the essential Best is the United player who burned brightest in 1968.