Davor Šuker Visits George Best’s Grave Ahead of Croatia v Northern Ireland International
- by croatiaweek
- in Sport
Croatian Football Federation President Davor Šuker visits George Best’s grave in Belfast (photo: HNS)
Croatian Football Federation President Davor Šuker has visited the grave of Northern Ireland’s most famous footballer George Best.
Šuker visited the grave in Belfast with a delegation from the Croatian Football Federation ahead of tonight’s friendly international between Croatia and Northern Ireland.
Best, who won the European Cup with Manchester United, and was named the European Footballer of the Year and FWA Footballer of the Year, is regarded as the “greatest player to ever pull on the green shirt of Northern Ireland”.
One of the greatest dribblers of all time, his playing style combined pace, skill, balance, feints, two-footedness, goalscoring and the ability to beat defenders.
Best was one of the first celebrity footballers, earning the nickname “El Beatle” but his subsequent extravagant lifestyle led to various problems, most notably alcoholism, which he suffered from for the rest of his life.
Before he died at age 59 in 2005, Best was voted 8th in the World Soccer 100 greatest football players of the 20th century election in 1999 and was voted 16th in the IFFHS World Player of the Century election in 1999.
