SACKED, BANNED, JAILED: GEORGE BEST AFTER MANCHESTER UNITED

The icon's Old Trafford exit aged 27 paved the way for a decade of globe-trotting and drama, as everybody tried to sign the former Ballon d'Or winner... with mixed results

- Words Josh Pennington

“I KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT FROM GEORGE BEST.”

Some statements are just destined to make their speaker look foolish from the moment they leave their lips. On September 4, 1976, it was the turn of Lindsay Parsons to find that out. Bristol Rovers' stalwart full-back was speaking to the press ahead of his side's Second Division game against Fulham at a sold-out Craven Cottage - more than 21,000 fans, double the average gate, would cram in to witness the former Ballon d'Or winner's debut.

"I've played against him before against Manchester United," Parsons went on. "I've never had a complex about him and I'm not going to start now. I'll mark him out of the game. "There will be no dream debut for George Best."

It took just 71 seconds for Fulham's new superstar to make his brash man-marker look silly, as he curled an exquisite free-kick around the Rovers wall and into the net with effortless class while spectators were still making their way through the turnstiles. It would end up being the only goal of the game, but for the remaining 89 minutes Best made Parsons and his team-mates dance to his tune, as if to highlight how misplaced the defender's confidence had been. A drop of the shoulder would send Rovers players one way, a stepover the other, and a feint of a pass brought them back again, all against a backdrop of 'ooh's and 'aah's from awestruck Cottagers who couldn't quite believe their luck.

Best's performance on his Fulham debut raised a glaring question that dominated the tabloids' back pages the next morning. How could this footballing icon - one of the world's greatest ever players, and still only 30 years of age - be playing in the Second Division?