According to lore, Saint George was some fellow.
A soldier in the Roman army, he is said to have slain a dragon to protect a king’s daughter before handing out his gold-laden reward to the poor.
Later, he was sentenced to death for refusing to recant his Christian faith.
Which is all very impressive but did he ever boss a midfield or date multiple Miss Worlds? No, probably not.
George Graham
Nicknamed ‘Stroller’ as a player for the manner in which he sauntered through opposition midfields, the Arsenal legend was a smooth operator on the pitch and off it.
In 1967 he married a model on the morning of a North London Derby, with Spurs counterpart Terry Venables his best man. The pair then competed in one of the biggest fixtures in British sport, the Gunners winning out 4-0.
As an infamously no-nonsense coach, Graham later led the club to two league titles before scandal forever tainted his legacy. In 1995 a Premier League inquiry found him guilty of accepting a £425,000 ‘bung’ from an agent when signing two of his players.
Arsenal are currently joint-favourites in the sports betting to bring another title to the capital. It would be their first for two decades.
George Weah
Having first gained a reputation at the fabulously named Invincible Eleven, Weah moved to France where he terrorised defences for Monaco and PSG before heading to AC Milan, a club he is still indelibly entwined with.
There at the San Siro, the sublime forward scored goals that stupefied even those seasoned enough to recall the great Nils Leidholm.
Bullet headers. Acrobatics. Quite ridiculous individual efforts. All were in his repertoire and in 1995 he duly picked up a Ballon d’Or.
After conquering the footballing world, Weah moved into the less murky arena of politics, becoming the President of Liberia in 2018.
Finidi George
The Nigerian winger’s blistering pace and trickery saw him thrive amidst one of the finest put-together sides Europe has ever known, one that reached consecutive Champions League finals in the mid-Nineties, upsetting the football odds by winning the first of them.
The Ajax collective that was conceived by Louis van Gaal and then gifted to the world featured the De Boer brothers, Rijkaard, Overmars, Litmanen and Kanu, while haring down the right was George, a player who derived great pleasure in the pure artform of taking on a man and beating him.
Plus, his name translated as ‘a future full of sun’ so that was nice.
Jorge Campos
A devout sweeper-keeper, before it came into vogue, Campos was flamboyant and a risk-taker, traits that made him adored by fans but less so by pragmatic coaches who would bore him in training talking of percentages.
His extrovert style partly explains why no European giant ever swooped for his services and it really was our loss because the Mexican was always terrific value.
He even designed his own jerseys, which inevitably were on the garish side.
George Best
We’ve literally saved the best until last, a genius whose exploits on muddy fields and down the boozer have become hard-wired into our national psyche.
With a ball at his feet there was nothing he couldn’t do, bewitching opponents and crowds alike in an era that was otherwise ruled by cloggers and hardmen.
Away from Old Trafford meanwhile, his impish smile and superstar aura saw him date four Miss Worlds. “In 1969 I gave up women and alcohol,” he once said. “It was the worst 20 minutes of my life.”
*Credit for all of the photos in this article belongs to AP Photo*
