George Best - the genius who defined a generation

It is a measure of genius that, two days after the news of its passing, people are still writing, reading and talking about it. So it is with George Best. Mention him without reference to football or Manchester United, and millions of men and women around the world still know who you are talking about.

Unlike modern sports stars who are household names, Best was not the product of a marketing machine. He was larger than life in his own right on and off the field - the first football star to join a new aristocracy of celebrities of the 1960s, a galaxy of popular music stars, actors and fashion models.

He enraged football traditionalists by growing his hair long, dressing in boutique fashions and escorting beautiful women. He was often referred to as the 'fifth Beatle'. At the same time, hero-worshipping young boys around Britain grew their hair long and practised their ball skills in the hope that some of his magic on the pitch would rub off on them.

As our story today says, Best lived his life in two halves, one incandescently on the field until the beginnings of alcoholism dulled his genius, and one self-destructively off it. A liver transplant three years ago offered a last chance to turn things around, but he was unable to abstain from drinking.

His life embraced the revolution that turned professional sport into big business and guaranteed superstars financial security. In 1965, already a fixture in Manchester United's first team at 19 and dubbed the boy wonder, more often than not he made just #50 a week if there was only one match. He did not then drink or smoke, filled his spare time by playing snooker and bowls and reading, and wondered during interviews what it would be like to be a millionaire.

In 1968, when he was voted European footballer of the year, he estimated his earnings at only #30,000. Recently, he had made much more than that from a steady flow of lucrative offers for advertising endorsements for sporting equipment.