George’s debut

WE VISIT BEST’S BELFAST HOME, 60 YEARS ON FROM HIS UNITED BOW

Eamon Dunphy was at the club at the time and was close mates with Best.

He recalls the man Pele called ‘the greatest player ever,’ making his Untied bow.

“It came out of the blue,” says Dunphy. “Busby put the team sheet up on Friday and sometimes he wouldn’t name the team until the morning of the match, so there was no hype. Busby would never do hype.

“But the hype came afterwards in a big way.

“We had a very good youth team at one stage, which George wasn’t able to get in.

“He was always trying to nutmeg people. You think, ‘Will this guy be consistent enough?’

“This was in the reserves and youth team. I think he lit up when he played at Old Trafford before a big crowd.

“Busby was never afraid to throw young players straight into the team. John Giles, I think, made his debut when he was 18.

“With George he did. George hadn’t played many matches in the reserve team, but Busby had an instinct and he followed it.

“George went from really the third team to the first team. He missed out the reserves altogether, which was a strange thing in those days.

Electric

“He was electric and he caught fire. He could do it in training as well, but you wouldn’t want to be taking the piss with the people you were training with because you’d get a kick in the hole.

“He was a very nice lad, George, very popular, good fella, quiet.

“Barry Fry was another who is still around in the game. We’d go dancing on Saturday nights. Very harmless. Dancing. Drinking coke. Trying to pull.

“We were good mates. We hung around together. Went dancing. Played snooker together.

“George was big into snooker and dancing and we were in digs quite close to each other. We had a little gang.

“I knew him very well and continued to know him through his life actually.”

Best’s debut came against West Bromwich Albion. He was just 17.

“He gave the left-back a