George Best's funeral on Saturday is expected to be the biggest seen in Northern Ireland. It is expected that 500,000 people will either attend the service at Stormont estate or line the proposed route the cortege will take. Television broadcasts will relay the proceedings to millions more.
Northern Secretary Peter Hain, a senior Irish Government figure, Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson and Best's international colleagues Gerry Armstrong, Martin O'Neill and Pat Jennings will also attend. A host of names from Manchester United's European Cup-winning side of 1968 are also expected.
Rumours flooded Belfast yesterday that Pele or Diego Maradona could also appear.
A ceremony, part of which will be private, will be held in Stormont's marbled Great Hall with 300 invited mourners, and relayed on giant screens to tens of thousands expected outside.
In accordance with his wishes, Best will be buried alongside his mother, Annie, at Roselawn Cemetery in the Castlereagh Hills overlooking the city.
The interment will be private.
Newspaper campaigns have reflected the public clamour to have a permanent memorial to the former international star.
Sports minister David Hanson conceded yesterday the British government would consider incorporating a Best memorial into the plans for a £55 million multisports stadium expected to be built on the site of the former Maze prison.
Calls to radio phone-in shows and a newspaper campaign endorsed such a move and promoted other ideas. There was one suggestion that the Northern Ireland Number 7 and Number 11 shirts, in which Best played, never be filled again.
Other members of the public acted in advance of their public representatives and filed into Belfast City Hall and the headquarters of Castlereagh Borough in east Belfast to sign one of numerous books of condolence.
Fans have set up shrines at the Best family home in the Cregagh area and outside Windsor Park in south Belfast, where Best played as a Northern Ireland international.
The biggest was at the foot of Belfast's main Christmas tree in Donegall Square. Crowds assembled throughout the day, with many laying flowers and football scarves.
Many recorded their personal sympathies on a large banner bearing the star's name.