Belfast bids farewell to soccer hero George Best

By Jodie Ginsberg

BELFAST (Reuters) – Tens of thousands turned out in Belfast
on Saturday to bid farewell to George Best, Northern Ireland’s
local lad turned soccer legend who died last week after losing
his battle with alcoholism.

Best, who was mentioned in the same breath as soccer greats
Pele and Diego Maradona, died of multiple organ failure on
November 25 after years of heavy drinking.

His sister, Barbara McNarry, paid tribute to “the beautiful
boy of the beautiful game” during a funeral service at the
province’s Stormont parliament building.

Best’s body was taken by hearse along the three-mile (five
km ) journey from his family’s modest Belfast home to
Stormont’s white-pillared grandeur.

Thousands lining the route in pouring rain applauded the
slow moving funeral cortege, as Best’s native town gave the
former Manchester United winger the type of send-off normally
reserved for royalty.

Some of soccer’s greatest names, including Manchester
United manager Alex Ferguson, attended the ceremony which was
relayed on giant screens to around 30,000 people in the grounds
of the Stormont estate that overlooks Belfast.

“Goodbye Georgie, the Elvis of soccer,” read one banner
held aloft in the crowd outside.

“George brought people together all over the world, and
especially he brought people together in Northern Ireland,” his
sister told 300 friends, family and dignitaries at the service.

“Everybody loved him who came into contact with him,” said
Professor Roger Williams, the doctor who oversaw Best’s liver
transplant in 2002 and treated him until his death.

“I think we made him too well with the transplant,”
Williams told the service. “The temptations of life overtook
him again, and then it was the beginning of the end.”

His son, Callum, choked back tears as he read two poems in
memory of his father.

Other sporting guests attending the service included
England soccer manager Sven Goran Eriksson, Northern Ireland
boxer Barry McGuigan, and former Northern Ireland goalkeeper
Pat Jennings.

UNIVERSAL APPEAL

The journey between his family home in the narrow streets
of Cregagh council estate, east of the city, and Stormont’s
white-pillared grandeur symbolized Best’s own life story which
took him from humble roots to global celebrity.

He won the European Cup with United in 1968 and was voted
European Footballer of the Year.

Best combined mercurial talent with pop star looks, a
combination that vaulted him to the pinnacle of stardom in
London’s Swinging Sixties.

But his love of champagne and playboy lifestyle slid into
alcoholism. Best was unable to shake the disease and in the end
it killed him.

The turnout and the tributes that had flooded in since the
death of Best, a Protestant, showed his immense popularity —
one that crossed Northern Ireland’s sectarian divide.

The Best family home was itself turned into a makeshift
shrine. Flowers, football shirts and scarves covered every inch
of the garden and footpath outside.

Following the Stormont service, Best was due to be buried
in a private ceremony beside his mother, Ann, in the family
plot in Roselawn cemetery.