In the home tie, Best was kicked and spat on by José Hugo Medina, and both players were sent off after Best reacted with a punch. He had a brief resurgence in form with Second Division club Fulham from 1976–78, showing that, although he had lost some of his pace, he retained his skills.

It is also, albeit in a different way, one of the subtexts of Duncan Hamilton's jumbo-sized "approved" treatment of George Best. A politely reserved teenager from east Belfast with a prodigious natural talent breaks into professional football at precisely the moment when the rewards available to the game's finest go through the roof.He then dropped back into the reserves, before scoring his first goal for the first team in his second appearance in a 5–1 win over Burnley on 28 December.

He also was a guest player for an exhibition match between Dee Why Football Club and Manly Warringah held on 27 July 1983; Dee Why won the match 2–1, with Best having scored the winning goal. A panel of seven academics, journalists and historians named Best among the group of people in the UK "whose actions during the reign of Elizabeth II have had a significant impact on lives in these islands and given the age its character". There follows a protracted and well-publicised decline into a sub‑world of alcoholism, bankruptcy, liver transplants and, eventually, gruesome death. Later that year, he helped his club win the European Cup and was named European Footballer of the Year. ACTIVE SPACES: Belfast's Cregagh Green first to benefit from London Marathon Charitable Trust funding".

Best features in EA Sports' FIFA video game series; he was included as an icon in the FIFA 19 Ultimate Team Legends. On 3 October 2005, he was admitted to intensive care at the private Cromwell Hospital in London, suffering from a kidney infection caused by the side effects of immuno-suppressive drugs used to prevent his body from rejecting his transplanted liver.

Charlton turns up quite a bit in Immortal: admiring Best's talent; warning "The Boss" ( Sir Matt Busby) about his misdemeanours; making a final, conciliatory appearance at his deathbed.He was one of the first celebrity footballers, but his extravagant lifestyle led to problems with alcoholism which curtailed his playing career and eventually led to his death in November 2005 at the age of 59.

Paul Collier had worked with Phil and George and his knowledge of everything Best made him the ideal person to compile the book. Una vita esagerata, sempre oltre il limite, che va ben oltre i meriti letterari di un libro che dirà davvero poco a chi non conosceva George Best: un calciatore di Belfast che sarebbe potuto essere "il migliore" ma che a 27 anni si è ritirato per essere solo Best. In 1999, he was voted 11th at the IFFHS European Player of the Century election, and 16th in the World Player of the Century election.

When Best played at right wing, as he famously did during the later stages of the 1966 and 1968 European Cups, he donned the number 7.