George Eid Sr, a 62-year-old restaurateur from Manchester, is a world champion foosball player. His journey began in 1975 in Beirut, Lebanon, during the civil war, when he first played foosball at age 12. He went on to win gold at the 2018 ITSF world series in Austria and silver at the 2019 World Cup in Spain.
From war-torn Beirut to foosball mastery
Eid was 12 when he first played foosball in the summer of 1975 in Beirut. His city was under siege, split by civil war, with school cancelled and roads closed. The only place to go was the amusement arcade across the street. Alongside billiard tables and games machines were a couple of foosball tables. He watched older kids play for hours, mesmerised by a game where you could outsmart an opponent two feet away and celebrate in their face. Money was scarce, so he made a deal with the arcade owner: if he cleaned the tables, he could play for free. With machine guns rattling on the nearby green line dividing east and west Beirut, he stuffed a towel inside the goal and practised until confident. By the following summer, he was winning 10 games in a row.
From hobby to professional competition
As a teenager, foosball gave way to girlfriends, wine, cigarettes, and a job in a casino. He met a British woman, married her, and in 1986, with the war ongoing, they left Lebanon for Manchester. They had a son and a daughter, and a foosball table in the kitchen. It remained a hobby until 2004 when he was managing Manchester's Hard Rock Casino. He bought a table for customers with a sign: "Beat the manager." The weekly challenge had 30 competitors, but he always won.
One day, Khalid Sharif, then the UK foosball No 1, walked in and challenged him. Eid won 10-0. The next week, Sharif brought members of Britfoos, the British Foosball Association. Eid won again, and they invited him to join their team. The professional scene was well organised, with hundreds of players, tournaments abroad, cash prizes, and a World Cup. At this level, it was always teams of two—a striker and a goalie—rather than the one-on-ones Eid had been playing. He and Sharif travelled the UK as a team, with Eid as striker and Sharif as goalie.
World Cup glory and international competition
In 2012, Eid had left casinos to open a Lebanese restaurant, Zaytoon, in Manchester, when Team GB invited him to the World Cup in Hamburg as a substitute. More than 35 countries competed in a huge hall with 200 tables and big screens. There were junior, ladies, mens, and seniors teams, everyone in national kit, singing anthems. In 2018, he played at the ITSF world series in St Pölten, Austria. The team played Germany in the final; it went to penalties, they thrashed them and won gold. A year later, at the World Cup in Murcia, Spain, they faced Portugal, then USA—20-time world champions and favourites—in the quarter-final. It was a hot day, and they were underdogs. The whole arena cheered for them. The format was 10 games, four points each. They won all 40 points. In the semi-final against the Netherlands, they tied 39-39 until Eid shoved the last point into the net. In the final against Germany, they lost 40-24, but silver and second in the world felt good enough.
Life as a foosball champion
Foosball has taken Eid all over the world, including Vegas, Rome, and Germany. On Friday nights, the team practises in Manchester. The game has given him an international family, friends, and enemies—one German player is his nemesis, who has won hundreds of games but still shakes with nerves when they compete. Afterwards, they get a drink together. It's an atmosphere of mutual respect.
Khalid is still his best mate; Eid says he would never have known about professional foosball without him. His son, George, now travels the world playing with him as a talented goalie. George is a personal trainer who works with Eid three times a week and helps rehabilitate his shoulder from foosball injuries. At 62, Eid must keep his stamina up.
Eid still runs his restaurant, with his foosball medals on display. He is preparing for the next World Cup in 2028. He plays hypothetical games in his mind while cooking, memorises patterns of play, and rewatches footage of opponents if he cannot sleep. "In foosball, gameplan is vital—and in the next World Cup, I want gold," he said. As told to Deborah Linton.
