George Best Down Under

George Best is widely regarded as a brilliant footballer - one of the best in the world - with a troubled life. A European Cup and Ballon d'Or winner with Manchester United, the Northern Ireland international had all the skills and panache to be at the top of the game. George Best visited four times between 1967 and 1990, the first time with Manchester United ahead of their European Cup win as the biggest football star in the universe, the last time as a supernova. As early as Best's second visit in 1983, journalist Andrew Dettre wrote that Best's visit to Australia "must surely...be considered rock bottom" for a man of his talents. Lucas Gillard, in collaboration with Jason Goldsmith, has built on sections from their first book Be My Guest - Football Superstars in Australia to produce this myopic of George Best's tours down under. Despite the popular view that Best's tours down under were all about drinking and women, Gillard and Goldsmith go behind-the-scenes to talk with people who knew him, who played with him, and who knew there was much more nuance, complexity, and back story to the man than the archetypal celebrity footballer the media preferred to present.