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 On November 25, 2005, George Best, Britain's iconic football genius and self-destructive prodigal son, died in an expensive, private London hospital, from complications following a liver transplant in 2001. Bests' death was not unexpected - he had been drinking for 40 years. In the end, perhaps his death was a relief for those who loved him, knowing he was no longer in pain.
Just as Best's life was not ordinary, his passing left football and Britain, especially his own Northern Ireland, sadder, less colorful places. The national grief experienced at Best's was very real because something special had been lost forever - Best had taken a piece of the mythic 1960s with him. There is no real need to discuss Best's football greatness. It is a fact. We only need to watch the old gritty footage to see Best's sheer magic or talk to those who saw him play in his youth at Manchester United. They will tell you, Best really was that good. When Pelé himself pronounced Best as the greatest ever, who can argue - perhaps only Johann Cruyff or Diego Maradona. While his football was sublime, Best was also a very ordinary man with very common weaknesses, but with the money, usually, to finance them. Best was no political figure and stood for no great cause or principle in the way that Muhammad Ali, for example had confronted the American Government by refusing to fight in Vietnam. Football aside, fame, sexual conquest (at least in the early years) and money had been Best's driving forces, something which he openly acknowledged. The death of George Best no doubt reminded Brazilians of the depressingly similar death of their own greatly beloved Garrincha (1933-1983) - a man who helped Brazil win consecutive FIFA World Cups in 1958 and 1962. It was a time when a youthful, confident Brazil was taking its place in the world, a time before the generals took over. In the 1962 World Cup in Chile, with Pelé injured, Garrincha was widely credited as almost single-handedly winning the Cup for Brazil. Outside Brazil, Pelé is usually named as history's greatest footballer, but not necessarily so in Brazil, where Garrincha still claims the loyalty of his countrymen. Brazilians certainly respect, even revere, Pelé, but Garrincha, the drinker and womanizer, they love as one of their own. Like Best, Garrincha was an agile, crafty player who bemused the best defenders, made goals and scored them. Both men were physically fragile. Garrincha's legs and spine were badly bent due to a birth deformity. However, both he and Best possessed an inner strength and an infectious joy for the game. They played the beautiful game like artists, almost unplanned, but totally present on the field. It was football for football's sake that left delirious crowds gasping and happy. Unlike Best, Garrincha represented his nation at the very highest level of football in three World cups. In 1958 and 1962 Garrincha was at his best but a shadow of himself when Brazil were knocked out early in the 1966 World Cup. His twisted lower body was simply in too much pain. After 1966, Garrincha gradually sank into a downward spiral, beset by financial, family and alcohol problems. The stories of his demise are heartbreaking. Perhaps none more than the image of Garrincha in Rome picking up and smoking other people's cigarette stubs. By the time of his death in 1983, Garrincha, who had been hospitalized eight times in the previous year, was a physical and mental wreck. He died on January 19, 1983, in an alcoholic coma in Rio de Janeiro. He was almost unrecognizable. Garrincha's funeral procession evoked a national emotional outpouring based as much on guilt as genuine sadness. The people suddenly remembered the man who had won two world cups for Brazil but had died in poverty and despair. The tragedy of Garrincha was that he never demanded from his clubs or country what he really wanted and Brazil never gave him the help he so badly needed. Adoration and being "the joy of the people" was not enough. After his checkered playing career, Best fared better than Garrincha and even had a second career as a commentator. Best endlessly fascinated the British public and his honest views on football were refreshing and respected. However, the drinking never really stopped and in the end it finished Best. Compared to today's inaccessible, multi-millionaire superstars, Garrincha and Best become even more human and real and their skills even more special. Today's Ronaldos and Beckhams, playing at their super-clubs, may be great players, but there is a dullness to their safe and scripted interviews, in which they say nothing. It is impossible to relate to their lives and wealth of these superstars, for that is all they are. Despite their self-destructiveness and lack of restraint, why do the deaths of men such as Best and Garrincha leave people so genuinely saddened? The passing of genius and nostalgia is part of the explanation. Perhaps the real answer lies in their very ordinariness of their problems and their accessibility while they lived. Garrincha's financial struggles and drinking made him someone ordinary, poor Brazilians could relate to, in a way they never could to Pelé and his millions. Best's hopeless promises and lack of will over drinking infuriated people. Yet these very problems, his openness and humor also endeared him to the British people. Garrincha and Best were more than football heroes, they were also flawed and real human beings and that is why they will be remembered. Paolo Bassi is an attorney in California. He was raised in Europe and has visited Brazil and fell in love with the country and its people. He is very interested in the social aspects of football and how it helps to define certain groups of people. Bassi has also written on politics and culture. He can be reached at
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Copyright Paolo Bassi @ 2006
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