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AN ex-Manchester United prodigy who was best mates with George Best claims that he tried to save his life but the star refused.
Widely regarded as one of the most talented players to ever grace a pitch, footy icon Best also had a long-standing battle with booze.
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It saw the Manchester United legend sadly pass away in 2005 as he finally succumbed to his off-pitch battles aged just 59.
Now, football pundit Eamon Dunphy has revealed how he once tried to get George Best to ditch drinking.
Dunphy, 79, was a lifelong friend of Best after the pair first came through the youth ranks at Man Utd together back in the 1950s.
He said that the late Best was actually a very shy person who had used alcohol to hide that.
Dunphy recalled meeting up with Best in the months leading up to his death, and was sad to see that he was still drinking, reports BelfastLive.
The pundit said: “It was very sad, really. He had been hospitalised and he was in bad health because of the drink. Now, he had given it up officially.
“So, we went out and the first thing he did was order a brandy.”
“I was drinking bottles of lager, which was my thing, but I had a couple of spliffs and I said to him, ‘George, you shouldn’t be drinking that stuff, that f**king stuff is killing you. Have a spliff.'”
“He said, ‘Eamon, I don’t do drugs. I would never touch that stuff.’ He had that working-class prejudice against drugs.
“But the alcohol is what killed him.”
Meanwhile, Dunphy, who will turn 80 next year, said he is trying not to think about his own old age.
He added: “I’m trying not to, but you know what the deal is, so I think it gives you more of an appreciation for every day.”
“You don’t think, ‘I hope I’ll be happy someday down the road.’ You better get happy now, baby, because there ain’t going to be a ‘down the road’.”
At his peak, Best was unstoppable.
He was far stronger than he looked with his slight frame standing resilient despite some brutal tackles.
Unable to get the ball off him, defenders would often resort to just hacking him down instead.
He was among the goals when Man Utd won the European Cup in 1968, defeating Benfica in the final.
He was named European Footballer of the Year in the same season and came fifth in the FIFA Player of the Century vote.
The late great Pele, once described him as “a footballer without comparison” and so good “all you could do was foul him”.
George Best’s life and times
George Best had the genius to perform magic on the football pitch and was a natural entertainer.
He could run like an antelope, pass, dribble multiple players, score with both feet, ride the most brutal tackles.
His peak and most famous stint came at Manchester United where he donned the iconic No.7 shirt.
Best joined the club at age 15, and he made his first-division debut two years later, in 1963.
He was an immediate sensation, scoring acrobatic goals and helping United to a league title in his second season.
He led the club to another league championship during the 1966–67 season.
And in 1968 he was named European Footballer of the Year and helped United become the first English club to win the European Cup.
In total Best made 474 appearances for Britain’s biggest club in all competitions from 1963 to 1974, and scored 181 goals.
Sadly, Best was a tormented soul from east Belfast who, when he got bored of being better than everyone else, went to the pub and never really came back.
Best was plagued with off-the-field problems including alcoholism and debt, triggered by an extravagant lifestyle.
His time at the very top was short-lived and after leaving Old Trafford he played for a host of clubs around Ireland, England, USA, Australia and even Scotland.
He walked out on Manchester United aged just 27 and ended his significant playing days with Hibernian instead of rising to even greater glory than he’d known at Old Trafford and signing for Aberdeen.
Fans north of the border got to see the wing-wizard in the flesh when he signed for Hibs in the winter of 1979 on a £2,000 a match pay-per-play deal.
The legend also played matches for junior team Arbroath Vics and Perthshire amateur side Scone Thistle in the same weekend in the 80s – and even had Swedish Miss World and Bond girl Mary Stavin with him.
Best died in 2005 aged 59 after suffering multiple organ failure following years of alcoholism.
Dubbed the ‘fifth Beatle’, Best used his wealth and celebrity to pursue a lifestyle that saw him open his own nightclubs, restaurants and clothes shops.
Best famously said: “If you’d given me the choice of going out and beating four men and smashing a goal in from thirty yards against Liverpool or going to bed with Miss World, it would have been a difficult choice.”
“Luckily, I had both.”
It comes after Manchester United minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has revealed who he thinks is his favourite player to ever don the famous red shirt.
The British billionaire finally had his 25 per cent takeover of the Manchester club ratified by the Premier League last month, marking a new era for the footballing giant.
He said: “George Best was, I suppose, probably the most naturally gifted player I have ever seen play football.”
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