I swooned over soccer great George Best when I was a young girl

in England....he is dying now, age 59, from alcoholism

and right now I feel a little pitty pat in my chest looking at that picture!

Such a shame.

:hi: Skittles

I hope you had a good Thanksgiving. You doing OK?

let's see...it's 11PM, I just woke up and none of the food I have looks appealing :(

Ahhh, wish you were closer or close at all for that matter. I would invite you over and feed you yummy things.

and he may have died already. He was beautiful, may he be at peace.

especially poignant for me because my brother Glenn was a huge Manchester United fan, and Glenn passed away last year from acoholism

The latest update from his Doctor, Professor Roger Williams, says that Best is "nearing the end" and has "only hours...if not minutes left to live."

But he'll be gone by the morning, so I do think R.I.P. is appropriate.

all my gal pals were in love with him....and quite a few guys were too :)

he was very kind to me, and seemed like a geniunely nice person.

But you know, George Best has been his own WORST enemy. This once highly gifted man, has been given so MANY chances and has been given so MANY offers of help...and he's blown them all.

They even gave him a NEW liver several years ago, and he just went on drinking. He's been in rehab countless times. He has had some form of stomach surgery, which meant that EVERY time he drank, he would throw up, he got round that.

The local pubs and alcohol sellers where he lived ALL REFUSED to serve or sell him alcohol, so he just went to the next town.

George Best, has been given chance after chance and yet THIS is how he's ended up...and he'll probably be dead by tomorrow.

The one thing that MIGHT have helped him, is if HE would have met people half way and said "I'm an alcoholic and I want you to help me to help myself"

It's a COMPLETE waste of a life and it needn't have BEEN this way. Many people have been alcoholics and yet they've turned their lives around.

I HOPE and pray, that in the next life, which George will be entering in just a few short hours, that he finally finds the peace of mind AND soul, that somehow for whatever reason he was NEVER able to find in this earthly life.

R.I.P George Best.

severe alcoholism is a disease, a very, very bad disease

Drug addiction is treated as a disease, but for some reason people think of alcoholism in different terms.

A long-time friend of my Dad's died from alcoholism, and he was very similar to George Best. He had EVERY help you could imagine...and yet in the end, he was unable to say the simple words: "I'm an alcoholic and I want you to help me to help myself"

My Dad's friend had ALL the help and you know, just like George Best, he FOUGHT that help every which way...and he died, an alcoholic.

We need proper programs, funded by the Government, proper programs to treat alcoholism like the disease that it is.

and a cousin that died this last summer like that. It is so sad but there is nothing you can do sometimes. My cousin ended up living under a bridge drinking his life away after he had been given a thousand chances. The last time I saw him he looked as orange as a Halloween pumpkin, he died the next day.

All you can do is wish them peace in the after times.

Tragic and...almost infuriating to just watch them destroy themselves, after time, energy, love and money has been spent on them trying to HELP them...for them to only FIGHT tooth and nail the very HELP that's trying to save their life.

You know, you cannot help an alcoholic if they're not at least willing to admit that they have a problem and then once they've done that to join forces with the people who are trying to help them get off the demon drink.

As I said, I hope George Best in a few hours is going to enter a place, where he's going to find his peace.

imagine what it must be like. I thought I was going to die when I quit smoking.

It is a terrible, multifaceted disease and some people just don't seem to be able to break through it no matter how much help is offered. That first step must be terribly hard. I seriously doubt that I could.

As a society in general, try and understand alcoholics better and try and see if we can develop a better way with which to deal with them and their tragic problem.

Much of it is psychological, and of course, this makes it a highly complex issue.

I slept for 3 years, in my early teens, under several large posters of Georgie. He was so gorgeous - sigh.

I've just read this tribute by 'Parkie'. They were friends for over 40 years and it is very touching.

http://www.sport.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2005/11/25/best4.xml&sSheet=/sport/2005/11/25/ixsporttop.html

He was 'Simply The Best'!
:cry:

I hope he will be around for some time :)

That is indeed a lovely tribute.

He's still alive, probably in his late 60s now.

The car crash that took the sight of one of his eyes, and ended a brilliant career, was back in 73.


edit for typo

Dad...he knows about this stuff, luckily I can remember things that are told to me. However, I can't remember who Banks played for as a first team...it wasn't Derby County I don't think.

Peter Shilton replaced Gordon Banks, thus becoming one of the longest standing England goalkeepers. Shilton did start out at Derby and also finished his career at Derby.

There was a TV program last year, the Top Ten England goalkeepers, and Banks was number one, followed by Shilton at number two.

I'm full of OTHERWISE pointless trivia facts ;)

I saw him play against West Ham (my home team) quite a few times and several for England.

Leicester, thats right, thanks :)

So you're a Hammers fan? I'm pretty impressed with Reo-Coker and Zamora. You've got a bit of a game on Sunday haven't you, against Man U...mind you, you're at home, so that should give you a good advantage.

I support Inverness Caledonian Thistle, which you might think bizarre, considering Louisiana and all. My Dad's always supported Celtic, but then they're his home team.

yes INDEED

1955-59 Chesterfield
1959-67 Leicester City
1967-72 Stoke City
1977-78 Fort Lauderdale Strikers

So he was playing in the States with one eye?

I would have swooned over him too. That's sad to hear he's dieing when it could have prevented.

I lost my father and one of my stepmothers to physical complications of alcoholism.

Franz Beckenbauer type....although for the wild guys, I was partial to Bogie (Vladimir Bogecevic) and Neeskens (sp?)

Used to meet the Cosmos players at the Cosmos fan meetings in NJ, already 25 years ago. Man, we had fun!!

May he find his own room with smoked salmon, $20,000 cash, and Miss Universe and no bellhop to ask him the inevitable question...

Very sad. :(

http://usr.solar.com.br/~juliocba/garrincha.htm


Here he is with Pele. When they played together NO ONE ON EARTH could beat Brasil.