George Best

Players today moan about the number of games, but when you're young, you can't play enough.

If I had to choose between dribbling past 5 players and scoring from 40 yards at Anfield or shagging miss world, it'd be a hard choice. Thankfully, i've done both

I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered.

If you'd given me the choice of going out and beating four men and smashing a goal in from thirty yards against Liverpool or going to bed with Miss World, it would have been a difficult choice. Luckily, I had both.

I'm OK. Much better than on other occasions. It's true that I've made lots of mistakes but I've never tried to bother anyone. I want to stay alive, preferably in peace, without seeing every one of my mistakes in the papers, and on many occasions, even stories that are lies.

Drink is the only opponent I have been unable to beat.

They'll forget all the rubbish when I've gone, and they'll remember the football. If only one person thinks I'm the best player in the world, that's good enough for me.

People say you have to hit rock bottom, and, I can tell you, almost dying is as rock bottom as it gets.

I was 19 or 20 when The Beatles were at their peak, and I was coming up to the peak of my career, too. I was also the first footballer to have long hair, and that's how I got my nickname 'the Fifth Beatle.'

We were the first generation to have to deal with the modern stardom of football. Some handled it better than others.

I used to dream about taking the ball 'round the keeper, stopping it on the line, and then getting on my hands and knees and heading it into the net. When I scored against Benfica in the 1968 European Cup final, I nearly did it. I left the keeper for dead, but then I chickened out.

The nice thing is that when people come up to me, it's the football they remember, not all the other rubbish.

It's a big compliment that so many people want to see me. For them, it's all about football. That's what they remember about me.

In England, when an athlete gets to the top, we do our best to destroy him.

I don't have any regrets. I made all my own decisions.

When I look back on my life as a whole, it is impossible for me not to feel blessed.

I definitely don't think that money can buy you love. It can buy you affection but certainly not love.

Even at the height of my fame, 50 per cent of the people who saw me wanted a fight; it’s the downside of being a star player.

Pele called me the greatest footballer in the world. That is the ultimate salute to my life.