Best, George (1946–2005)
Northern Irish footballer. One of football's greatest talents, he was a vital member of the Manchester United side that won the league championship in 1965 and 1967, and the European Cup in 1968, when he was voted both English and European Footballer of the Year. A goal provider as much as a goal scorer, he scored 178 goals in his 466 appearances for the club from 1963 to 1973.
Career highlights
International appearances (1964–78)
37 (9 goals)
European Cup
1968
English League Championship
1965, 1967
Awards
Footballer of the Year
1968
European Footballer of the Year
1968
Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, he joined Manchester United as a youth and made his full debut at the age of 17. Seven months later he won the first of 37 international caps for Northern Ireland. Although he subsequently made a series of short-lived comebacks, trouble with managers, other players, and the media meant that his career as a player was in decline by the time he left Manchester United in 1973. He also played for Stockport County, Fulham, Bournemouth, Hibernian, and in the USA.
Best, George (died c. 1584)
| English navigator and chronicler of the three Arctic voyages of Martin Frobisher. He took part in the voyages of 1577 and 1578, when Frobisher attempted to establish gold mining settlements on southern Baffin Island. |
| His account of the voyages, A True Discourse of the late Voyages of Discoverie for the Finding of a Passage to Cathaya by the North-weast under the conduct of Martin Frobisher (1578) (republished in V Stefansson, The Three Voyages of Martin Frobisher, 1938) is widely admired for the perceptiveness of his observations on the geography, climate, and Inuit of Baffin Island. Nothing further is known of his career, except that he was killed in a duel about 1584. |
