Sports superstars

Not every sportsman or woman gets to decide when they should retire, for most that decision is taken out of their hands.

But for those that do it’s a fine balance of making sure they pull the pin before they’re past their best and damage their legacy, but also don’t leave any trophies or great wins on the table.

The 42-year-old Tom Brady recently decided that he will play for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers next season, after 20 years with the New England Patriots. It’s sure to end in tears.

David Long looks at some sporting stars who came second in a battle against father time.

Then in part two of this series he examines sports stars who defied the odds by bouncing back after being being written off, then in the final part he looks at those who pulled the pin early.

Muhammad Ali – Boxing. Age retired : 40 When he was at his peak Ali floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee, but at the end of his career he was already showing signs of Parkinson’s disease. His penultimate fight, to Larry Holmes is one of the saddest moments of all time in sport and actor

Sylvester

Stallone, who was ringside, said that it was like watching an autopsy on a man who is still alive. Depressingly, he had one more fight, losing to Trevor Berbick in 10 rounds and it’s believed he took 200,000 punches over his career. Ali was the greatest sports star of the 20th century, but unfortunately, there’s no person who deserves to top this list more than Ali.

Martin Crowe – Cricket. Age retired: 49 New Zealand’s greatest ever batsman initially retired at the age of 33 because of knee problems, but in

2011 then aged

49 he tried to make it back to first-class cricket. He wanted to score 392 more runs to get to

20,000, so strapped on the pads again for Cornwall Cricket Club to get time in the middle and show that he was ready for a return to the first-class game. However, his comeback lasted all of three balls, before picking up a thigh injury. ‘‘I said from the start it would end in tears with an injury,’’ Crowe admitted afterwards.

George Best – Football. Age retired: 37 In the 1960s George Best was as big as the Beatles and was one of the most skilful players to ever play the game. But there was another side to Best which was perfectly summed up when he once said of his career: ‘‘I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars – the rest I just squandered."

He left Manchester United in 1974 and bumped around a few random clubs, before having the last good season of his career with Fulham in 1976-77. Out of shape and battling alcoholism, Best then went on to play for clubs in USA, Scotland and Hong Kong before finally finishing with the Brisbane Lions in 1983. Sadly, when the football stopped, the drinking