He was a very famous and very, very good footballer in the late 1960s and early 70s. Even Pele said he was the best footballer he'd ever seen.
One of the very first, if not the first, to be a superstar in the footballing world when it was full of bald old men. Very fashionable and good looking, he slept his way around plenty of Miss Worlds and drunk enough booze to sink a ship.
He quit football at 26 and spent the rest of his life on the ****. He was an alcoholic (read: addicted to drink) and had a liver transplant in 2002. Because of his addiction, he found it very difficult to give up drink, and went back to boozing after the op. He's now critically ill in hospital with multiple organ failure, complicated by the anti-rejection drugs he was taking for the transplant.
For more, see:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4090840.stm [Edited on 25-11-2005 by antonye]