Few, if any, who have pulled on the red jersey of Manchester United can have made a greater impact to the club’s glorious history than the boy from the Cregagh estate in East Belfast. Best brought joy and tears – often in equal measures during the final days of his Old Trafford career – to those who sang his praises from the sprawling terraces, or who worshipped from afar. His talents were numerous, blessed with a brilliance that left defenders a quivering wreck and the crowds who flocked to see him singing his name in unison. He was the epitome of the ‘swinging sixties’ both on and off the pitch. A player who could do things with a ball that most could only dream of. A player whose moments of individual brilliance helped Manchester United to glory time and time again.

There have been many books on the ‘Belfast Boy’ – too many some might say – but while telling the story of the player who many believe to have been the ‘best ever’, they have merely skirted round many of the games when he laced up his boots, pulled on the jersey, and went out and caused havoc in opposition defences. He brought delight to the thousands who stood in awe. Here, however, within the pages of this volume, those games come to life; his bewitching skills come under the microscope as Iain McCartney selects fifty defining fixtures from the career of the footballing legend that was George Best.