NI and Man Utd legend George Best's player of the year gong sells for £26,000 at auction

Belfast Telegraph

08-05-2025

The item was awarded during the club's European Cup-winning season
A player of the year trophy awarded to NI and Manchester United legend George Best has been sold at auction in England for £26,000.
The east Belfast-born star picked up the English Football Writers Association Footballer of the Year in 1968, the year the Red Devils took home the European Cup.
Best found the net in the club's 4-1 win over Portuguese side Benfica in the final, helped them to a second-placed league finish and went onto be crowned European footballer of the year.
The 23-cm high trophy was awarded by the Football Writers Association, whose 400 or so members have voted on the best player in England since the 1947 – 48 season, when Stanley Matthews was the inaugural winner.
The item went under auction at Graham Budd Auctions in Northamptonshire on Wednesday, fetching £26,000, within its estimate of £25,000-£30,000.
A rare George Best Barratt and Co football card also went under the hammer at £4,800, well above its estimate of between £1,500 and £2,000, while a match-worn NI jersey from 1976 sold for £11,000.
The jersey was worn in a behind-closed-doors friendly match against Coventry City on October 9 1976.
Other items within the same lot included a bottle of 1997 George Best Signature Wine, which sold for £120, and a Belfast Telegraph promotional poster produced following his death, which went for £60.
Further trophies won by Best were also on sale at auction. His 2002 Century FM Lifetime Achievement award fetched £650, with a 1984 George Best XI v Billy Neill XI trophy also selling for £120.
The winger's 2011 Belfast Sports Hall of Fame award however went unsold, along with a 1983 friendly trophy inscribed with the names of Nuneaton Borough and Coventry City.
Items related to Best's career have proved extremely popular at auctions, often fetching prices well in excess of their estimates.
The NI legend scored nine goals in 37 games for his country and 137 goals in 361 appearances for Manchester United after he was discovered by club scout Bob Bishop in Belfast at the age of 15.
He continued his career in the US, appearing for Los Angeles Aztecs, Fort Lauderdale Strikers and the San Jose Earthquakes, as well as a notable spell at Fulham in 1976-77 where he scored eight goals in 42 appearances.
One of the game's first 'celebrity' footballers, Best suffered from alcoholism and died in 2005 aged 59.
All the items were on sale as part of Graham Budd's two-day Auction of Two Halves this week.
The auction house dedicated a day's sale to each of Manchester's big clubs: the Sky Blues of City and the Red Devils of United.
Jerseys formed the bulk of the City sale, with a red and black Tommy Booth shirt worn in the 1969 FA Cup Final win over Leicester City fetching £3,800.