Clyde Best

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Clyde Best MBE (born February 24, 1951 in Bermuda) was a Bermudian football player who most notably played striker for West Ham United, and was one of the first post-World War II black players in British football. While he initially suffered through some unpleasant fan chanting, Clyde became a true fan favourite at Upton Park. He was a strong, powerful player with the skills of the traditional English centre forward, tough to dispossess when he had the ball and good in the air. Best played 186 games and registered 47 goals for West Ham over 7 seasons between 1969 to 1976.

Best also played for Feyenoord in the Dutch Eredivisie as well as the Tampa Bay Rowdies, Toronto Blizzard and Portland Timbers of the North American Soccer League.

Best received his first cap at the age of fifteen playing for the Bermudian national team. Best also coached the national team from 1997 to 1999.

Best was also instrumental in the origins of football at Irvine Valley College in Southern California, as a founding member of the coaching staff along with Head Coach Martin McGrogan in 1993.

Best was inducted into the Bermuda National Sports Hall of Fame in 2004. He was awarded an MBE in the January 2006 New Year's Honours list for services to football and the community in Bermuda.