Top 40 George Best Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “In 1969 I gave up women and alcohol and it was the worst 20 minutes of my life.”

— George Best

2. “I spent 90% of my money on women and drink. The rest I wasted.”

— George Best

3. “If I had to choose between dribbling past 5 players and scoring from 40 yards at Anfield or shagging miss world, it’d be a hard choice. Thankfully, i’ve done both.”

— George Best

4. “You can’t trust very many people.”

— George Best

5. “If you make up your own mind, you can only blame yourself.”

— George Best

6. “Maybe ‘loner’ is too strong a word, but I’ve always enjoyed being on my own.”

— George Best

Featured in: Strong Quotes

7. “People say I slept with seven miss worlds, I didn’t. It was only four, I didn’t turn up for the other three.”

— George Best

8. “Football is a sad game.”

— George Best

9. “Love is about mutual respect, apart from attraction.”

— George Best

10. “They told me I wouldn’t make 25. Then it was 35, then 45. These were my doctors speaking – they’re all dead now.”

— George Best

11. “I want to be remembered for my football and the pleasure I gave people.”

— George Best

12. “I must be the only person in the world who’s looking forward to going into hospital. I can’t wait to get it over and done with.”

— George Best

13. “I always wanted more – more of everything.”

— George Best

14. “My one big regret is that I didn’t play on for 10 more years.”

— George Best

15. “Every team has a hard man. We has Nobby Stiles, Chelsea had Chopper, Arsenal had Peter Storey, Liverpool had Tommy Smith. Leeds had eleven of them.”

— George Best

16. “If I had been born ugly, you would have never heard of Pele.”

— George Best

17. “People say you have to hit rock bottom, and, I can tell you, almost dying is as rock bottom as it gets.”

— George Best

18. “I never went out in the morning with the intention of getting drunk. It just happened.”

— George Best

19. “Cristiano Ronaldo’s was the most exciting debut I’ve ever seen. There have been a few players described as ‘The New George Best’ over the years, but this is the first time it’s been a compliment to me.”

— George Best

20. “Pele called me the greatest footballer in the world. That is the ultimate salute to my life.”

— George Best

21. “He can’t kick with his left foot, he can’t head a ball, he can’t tackle and he doesn’t score many goals. Apart from that he’s all right.”

— George Best

22. “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.”

— George Best

23. “Don’t die like I did.”

— George Best

24. “I don’t recognize myself in the players I see today. There’s only one who excites me, and that is Thierry Henry. He’s not just a great footballer, he’s a showman, an entertainer.”

— George Best

25. “I’d give all the champagne I’ve ever drunk to be playing alongside him in a big European match at Old Trafford.”

— George Best

26. “I’m OK. Much better than on other occasions. It’s true that I’ve made lots of mistakes but I’ve never tried to bother anyone. I want to stay alive, preferably in peace, without seeing every one of my mistakes in the papers, and on many occasions, even stories that are lies.”

— George Best

27. “I was in for 10 hours and had 40 pints – beating my previous record by 20 minutes.”

— George Best

28. “Robert Redford used to be such a handsome man and now look at him: everything has dropped, expanded and turned a funny color.”

— George Best

29. “I definitely don’t think that money can buy you love. It can buy you affection but certainly not love.”

— George Best

30. “I will respect this liver. After all, it’s not mine.”

— George Best

31. “They say Paul Gascoigne is the new George Best but has he shagged three Miss Worlds?”

— George Best

32. “One day they might even say that I was another Ryan Giggs.”

— George Best

33. “I even found it difficult to watch myself playing on TV because I couldn’t identify with the person on the screen. I couldn’t get to grips with it. It was as if it was all happening to someone else.”

— George Best

34. “Everyone went crazy over Wayne Rooney, but I get more excited by Cristiano Ronaldo.”

— George Best

35. “The best thing about being a dad? Well, I think it’s just the thing that every man wants – to have a son and heir.”

— George Best

36. “There isn’t a single player I would pay to watch. A great entertainer needs to have charisma.”

— George Best

37. “That’s what children do – throw food. That’s not fighting. We were real men. We’d have chinned them.”

— George Best

38. “I was born with a great gift, and sometimes with that comes a destructive streak.”

— George Best

39. “Even at the height of my fame, 50 per cent of the people who saw me wanted a fight; it’s the downside of being a star player.”

— George Best

40. “When they first installed all-seater stadiums everyone predicted that the fans wouldn’t stand for it.”

— George Best

Featured in: Firsts Quotes

41. “To call Keegan a superstar is stretching a point.”

— George Best

42. “That thing about being an icon, the fifth Beatle, I just found it so freaky.”

— George Best

43. “I was ill, and everyone could see it but me.”

— George Best