PHQ# 376

Issue Date: 9 May 2013
Issue Title: Football Heroes
Description: George Best
Collection Type: Back FDI PHQ Card

Card Dimension: 148 x 105 mm
Stamp Dimension: 30 x 32 mm

On the reverse:
Reproduced from a stamp designed by True North, featuring original artwork
by Andrew Kinsman. Thanks to The Irish Football Association for its co-operation and assistance.

George Best
 

Date of birth	22 May 1946
Place of birth	Belfast, Northern Ireland
Date of death	25 November 2005 (aged 59)
Place of death	London, England
Height	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)

George Best (sometimes Geordie or Georgie Best) (22 May 1946 – 25 November 2005) was a Northern Irishprofessional footballer who played as a winger for Manchester United and the Northern Ireland national team. In 1968 he won the European Cup with United, and was named the European Footballer of the Year and FWA Footballer of the Year. He is described by the national team's governing body, the Irish Football Association, as the "greatest player to ever pull on the green shirt of Northern Ireland".

Legendary footballer George Best features on a new set of stamps - almost 50 years after he first pulled on a Manchester United jersey.

The Royal Mail stamps celebrate 150 years of the Football Association (FA).

Best was born in Belfast and signed for Manchester United at 17.

The stamps have been illustrated by artist Andrew Kinsman, who used photographs of 11 players.

From Royal Mail Website

That George Best appeared in the first ever game broadcast in colour seems apt, for he was one of football’s most colourful characters.

It was Belfast boy Best, who was the latest Football Hero to receive his profile on talkSPORT, the man who became the game’s first true superstar. When Manchester United scout, Bob Bishop, discovered a 15 year-old Best, he famously told manager Matt Busby: “I think I’ve found you a genius.”

He wasn’t far wrong, either. In his first full season, he helped the Red Devils pip arch rivals Leeds United to the league title, scoring 14 goals in 59 appearances. His reputation was cemented when he scored two goals in a European Cup quarter final in Portugal in 1966. His showy style and raw talent, coupled with his pop-star good looks (the Portuguese media dubbed him ‘O Quinto Beatle’ – the fifth Beatle) sent Best stellar.

At international level, he went on to represent Northern Ireland on 37 occasions, scoring nine goals. He is widely regarded as being the greatest footballer never to play in a major tournament.

His career highpoint came in the 1968-69 season when Best helped Manchester United to European glory, scoring a brilliant solo goal in the final. His efforts also landed him the coveted European Player of the Year award.

Alongside George Best in that formidable United midfield, were Football Heroes Dennis Law and Bobby Charlton, the ‘holy trinity’, who continued to shine, despite the club’s dwindling success in subsequent seasons.

Best’s mass adulation, in the height of the swinging Sixties, led to a well-documented love of the high life that got him in trouble with his employers more than once, and resulted in his retirement at just 27.

But it wasn’t permanent, and ‘Bestie’ toured the world with short stints at clubs in South Africa, Ireland and America. talkSPORT breaksfast show presenter, Alan Brazil, remembered one such encounter, when his Detroit Express were up against Best’s Fort Lauderdale strikers in 1978.

“I scored, they equalised, and then Bestie scored the winner in overtime to knock us out.” “He was fantastic company... I could sit and listen to George all day, talking about football, girlfriends, life...”

After his death in 2005, mourners paid tribute to George Best as “the beautiful boy with a beautiful game” and his native Belfast renamed its airport George Best Belfast City airport in his honour.

His place among football greats will never be in doubt, and Best’s name is often the first to be picked in any fantasy XI. As the famous phrase goes, “Maradona good. Pele better. George Best.”

Postmark

Special date stamp. Each player has his own hometown postmark.
 
PHQ Card

The 'PHQ' stands for Postal Headquarters. PHQ Cards (also known as Stamp Cards) are postcards that feature an enlargement of British stamp issues.

All items published by the Post Office are given a number which is prefixed by letters. The first card issued, on 16 May 1973, was numbered PHQ 1, and the numbering sequence has continued to the present day.

These collector's items are printed in much smaller quantities than the matching stamps and show much more detail.

They can be collected unused (Mint PHQ Cards) or first day of issue with the stamp on the front (Front FDI PHQ Cards) or stamp on the reverse (Back FDI PHQ Cards). 

Full reference for PHQ card can be accessed here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHQ_card