Williebetmore said:
JCIN,
You may not be familiar with the quote of a bankrupt, playboy, soccer player (I think...I can't remember the exact person) or baseball player who had once been wealthy.
The player (now poor), was asked how he lost all of his wealth. The player said something like, "I spent most of it on booze, and broads, and drugs....the rest I just wasted."
That phrase or similar has been attributed to many people over the years but I believe the one you are thinking about is Georgie Best, probably in the best 3 soccer players who ever lived but who was denied even more fame than he actually got due to Northern Ireland not making the World Cup finals in his era. He did excel for his club side Manchester Utd and I remember as a keen teenage soccer player myself being absolutely spellbound by his wizardry in European matches around 1968. His use of the phrase was I think "women, booze and gambling", he didn't do drugs other than the odd smoke.
He did accumulate great wealth (comparatively speaking as it was the
60's/70's and therefore before the era of really big soccer money arrived) and was indeed a playboy, having relationships with many of the world's most beautiful women including 4 different Miss Worlds. He also lost it all, partly through gambling but mostly directly or indirectly through alcohlism.
At the tail end of his career after the downward spiral was well under way and after his powers on the pitch were seriously faded, a newspaper reporter was invited to do an interview in his hotel bedroom in one of the most expensive hotels in London. When he came into the room a drunk George was lying on the bed which contained the naked current Miss World. Spread on the bed was also about
20k sterling which he had just won in the casino next door and there were two bottles of Dom Perignon on the bedside table. The newspaper reporter's first question was " George...........so where did it all go wrong? "
Alas he couldn't beat the battle with the bottle despite several operations involving anti-alcohol implants etc and his body finally gave up. He died almost exactly two years ago today at the age of 59. He received a virtual "state funeral" in Belfast , the like of which has never been seen in Northern Ireland before and probably never will be again. Some estimates put the funeral crowd at about 150,000 and several million in Ireland and Uk watched it live on television. Cheers George!.......you lit up many of our lives and just writing this brings back great memories.
His son Calum Best is now finishing off all the world's beautiful women that George never got round to
