George Best played football.
George Best ( 22 May 1946 -- 25 November 2005 ) was a Northern Irish professional footballer who played as a winger for Manchester United and the Northern Ireland national team . In 2004 , he was voted 19th in the public UEFA Golden Jubilee Poll and was named in the FIFA 100 list of the world 's greatest living players . The UEFA Golden Jubilee Poll is the popular name for an online poll conducted in 2004 by UEFA as part of their Golden Jubilee celebrations , celebrating the best European footballers from the fifty previous years .