BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY : AFRO-BRITISH CLYDE CYRIL BEST MBE FROFESSIONAL FOOTBALLER A STRIKER WITH WEST HAM UNITED : GOES INTO THE " HALL OF BLACK GENIUS "

                          BLACK                  SOCIAL              HISTORY                                                                                                                                                                     Clyde Cyril Best MBE  born 24 February 1951 in Somerset is a Bermudian former football player who most notably played as a striker for West Ham United, and was one of the first black players in British football.

As one of Britain's first black footballers, Best was regularly targeted with racist chanting from the terraces, including his own fans, but eventually became a 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. He made his first team debut for West Ham in a 1–1 homedraw against Arsenal on 25 August 1969 at the age of 18. His first goal for the Hammers being in the League Cup in a 4–2 win against Halifax Town, on 3 September 1969. Best played 218 games and registered 58 goals for West Ham over 7 seasons between August 1969 and January 1976.

Best also played in the Dutch Eredivisie for Feyenoord and in the United States for Tampa Bay Rowdies, Toronto Blizzard andPortland Timbers of the North American Soccer League. W

hile playing for Tampa Bay in the in the 1975 Soccer Bowl, he scored an 88th minute insurance goal to secure the Rowdies first NASL championship. Best was also an assistant coach for the San Diego Sockers for a brief period in the early 1990s.

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.