n In football today there's many a young pretender intent on matching on-the-park prowess with a healthy score in the nightclubs. But there can be only one, undisputed champion - George Best remains the king, on and off the field.
n Born in Belfast in 1946, he was thrust under the spotlights at the tender age of 15 when a Manchester United talent spotter wired Matt Busby: ''I have found a genius''. But the boy's first sojourn away from home didn't last long: shy and homesick, he returned after only two days. His father, a turner at Harland and Wolff, persuaded the club to give the boy one more chance: a refrain that has been a theme throughout Best's life.
n Two years later and more worldly-wise, he was playing for the first team at Old Trafford and winning hearts with every goal and every cup. His weekly pay packet ballooned from #17 to #5000, and brought hot-rod cars and girls to match the flash upholstery. Even Brazilian legend Pele felt compelled to proclaim Best the best.
n But drink, it seemed, was the only opponent which could prove more silky-smooth. When he and Tommy Docherty had their final bust-up, his departure from the club left a huge gap in Best's personal defence: He noted: ''When I was playing, I was drinking, but I wasn't going out deliberately to drink myself into oblivion. After I stopped playing, I did''.
n A subsequent foray into American soccer was matched by an unsuccessful marriage to Angela James, a leggy blonde from Southend. There followed more continent-hopping, spells in a drying-out clinic, and a three-month stay in Pentonville and Ford Open Prison for evading arrest on a drink-driving charge.
n Stardom was relegated to tabloid notoriety. But the downright cheekiness of his football skills can still peek through in his public life: one infamous moment happened on the Wogan show when the blarney merchant asked what Best did with his time these days. ''Screw,'' grinned Best, provoking hundreds of complaints and the withholding of his appearance cheque from an outraged Auntie Beeb.
n Most recently, of course, he was back in the media centre-circle when he finally agreed to leave his London home after a well-documented legal row. The boy wonder may have left the field, but the king of football is alive and kicking . . .
n The Truth About Footballers, 9.00pm, ITV
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