Clyde Best: Breaking Barriers in English Football
It Was What It Was : The Football History Podcast
The Overlap
4.9 • 667 Ratings
🗓️ 24 March 2026
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome to It Was What It Was, the football history podcast. This week, co-hosts Jonathan Wilson and Rob Draper are joined by an extraudinary guest - Clyde Best. An absolute pioneer to the game, born in Bermuda, Clyde would become one of the first black players in First Division football in England. His new film, ‘Transforming the Beautiful Game: The Clyde Best Story’ will be shown for a week at Sadler’s Wells East from 25th March.
In this episode, Clyde recounts arriving in England as a teenager, getting lost at West Ham station and being taken in by the Charles family. He reflects on his rise at West Ham, getting his debut against Arsenal under Ron Greenwood in 1969 and playing alongside the likes of Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters. Clyde talks of the his Bermuda upbringing, national team breakthrough and the influence that his father had on him. Best reflects on being one of the first prominent black players in English football, enduring racist abuse and an acid-attack threat and playing against Pelé. He also discusses NASL moves to Tampa Bay and Portland Timbers and the inspiration he provided players such as Ian Wright.
01:29 Lost at Heathrow
03:23 The Charles Family
06:59 Bermuda Beginnings
10:20 West Ham Dream
13:20 Ron Greenwood Impact
15:22 Fast Track Debut
18:35 Breaking Barriers
24:06 Facing Racism
31:03 Scoring Against Pelé
35:20 Leaving West Ham for the NASL
37:17 American Soccer Showmanship
43:01 Legacy as a Pioneer
46:57 Honorary Doctorate
49:44 His love for West Ham
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | So welcome to It Was What It Was with me, Rob Draper and Jonathan Wilson, and today with an extraordinary special guest. |
| 0:14.4 | Welcome to Clyde Best. Clyde was a legendary Westhand player, made his debut in 1969 and played through the 1970s, |
| 0:23.1 | then went to the North American Soccer League to play. His career in itself is fantastic and |
| 0:28.6 | well worth talking about it. But of course he has extra significance because he was an |
| 0:32.6 | absolute pioneer, one of the first black players in the game in England. |
| 0:43.3 | He is the player who, Ian Wright, Les Verdon and say they looked up to, made a visible path for them so they could see they could be professional footballers. |
| 0:47.3 | And as such, he is an icon of the English game. |
| 0:50.6 | We are extremely grateful that he's made some time to come and speak to us during his |
| 0:55.3 | trip to London. He's over here promoting his film, transforming the beautiful game, the Clyde Best |
| 1:01.2 | Story. We can tell you it's very good and very well worth watching because we've had a sneak |
| 1:06.2 | preview. It's London premiere is on March the 25th at Sadler's World East Theatre but there's a run in |
| 1:13.9 | London at least for a week it will be in cinemas I'm sure it will be in streaming services soon |
| 1:18.8 | it's well worth of watch Clyde welcome to the show thanks very much for having me it's a pleasure |
| 1:24.0 | to be here again and especially with my beloved Hammett, |
| 1:27.8 | Hammers, I hope I can bring up some luck. But, Clyde, I thought we'd start with the |
| 1:32.5 | incredible story of when you first arrive in England, that you're, what, you're 16 years old, |
| 1:37.4 | you're coming over for trial, you land at Heathrow, and there's nobody there to meet you. So tell us |
| 1:42.3 | what happens. Well, what happened? It was probably my fault as well because I never realized that the club wouldn't be open on the Sunday because at home our clubs, you know, we know we're a lot small and things like that. |
| 1:56.4 | But they are open like seven days a week, you know know and I thought being it was a Saturday not |
| 2:03.6 | realizing that they played on the Saturday and wouldn't be playing on the Sunday and I got messed up |
| 2:09.3 | that way but I learned at an early age if you want to know something you ask people and the |
| 2:15.1 | generous and people that uh sent me on the train and put me in the right |
... |
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