4 Manchester United legends who never played in the World Cup

#1 George Best

“Pele Good, Maradona Great, George Best” – a saying in Belfast.

Like Maradona, Best could do things with the ball that few footballers could even dream of. A Ballon d’Or winner in 1968, the Irishman played for 11 seasons at Old Trafford from 1963 to 1974, where he scored 181 goals from 474 appearances. He won the FA youth cup, 2 Football League First Division trophies, 2 Charity Shields and the fabled European Cup of 1968.

He was a highly efficient dribbler and had the poise and charisma on the field that made him immensely popular. He was a part of the Holy Trinity of Best-Law-Charlton that took Manchester United to unprecedented heights.

He played 37 times for the Northern Ireland team, scoring 9 goals, but never played in the World Cup. Northern Ireland did make it to the 1982 World Cup, but Best, who was 36 years old and had not featured for 5 years in his national team, did not make the squad.

Best later said in an interview that he wished that Billy Bingham, the Northern Ireland Manager at that time, had taken him just as a squad member and given him just 15 minutes on the pitch so that he could have played in a World Cup.

George Best certainly is one of the greatest players, not just of Manchester United, but in the world who never played in the World Cup.

About the author

Deepungsu is a veteran football journalist who has been covering daily transfer roundups and news for over six years at Sportskeeda. He has written close to 9000 articles for the website, and has garnered over 19.5Million reads.

Deepungsu holds a PG degree in Microbiology and an MBA degree in Total Quality Management. He has an extensive two-decade long writing experience, which includes a decade of sports blogging. His writing prowess has even led his work getting cited on the legendary Franz Beckenbauer's Wikipedia page.

Inspired by Diego Maradona, Deepungsu played as an attacking midfielder for his local club at subdivision level in his initial years and scored an important goal or two. However, his all-time favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and evidently, he feels Argentina's glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment for fulfilling his long-standing dream. He is also an ardent East Bengal fan.

Deepungsu has been a Manchester United supporter since the year 2000. Unsurprisingly, his favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson and the Scotsman helped him get through some of the toughest days of his life. Like the fiery Scot, Deepungsu also leaves no stone unturned when it comes to accuracy in articles and only relies on credible sources.

Despite believing in Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland to create an iconic rivalry, Deepungsu reckons no one can match the longevity of Messi and Ronaldo. He spends his leisure time writing about life on his blog, reading books, and playing the guitar.

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Edited by Sripad