Bermuda football legend Clyde Best will speak at the historic Oxford Union next week.

The Oxford Union, based at Oxford University, is the world’s most prestigious debating society and was set up by 25 students in 1822 who were tired of the curtailment of their freedom of speech.

The Union has attracted some of the world’s leading figures with past speakers including former US president Richard Nixon, who in 1978 uttered the line “I screwed it up and I paid the price”.

Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama, Sir Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein and Queen Elizabeth II have also spoken to students at the university.

So Best will follow in illustrious company when he speaks on June 9, with the event coming just a few days after he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Sport from the University of Sunderland in London. The presentation is made at 22:10 in the video above.

In his acceptance speech at Southwark cathedral, Best recalled the frequent racism from the terraces he experienced as one of football’s first black footballers and detailed his determination to play football for West Ham and the responsibility he felt to future generations.

“The most important thing is to remember that you are not just playing for yourself, you are playing for those playing after you,” Best said in his address.

“Football is for part of your life, but education is for your entire life and so It is a great honour and privilege to be recognised for my work by the University.”

Best’s story will reach new audiences next year when the documentary on his life is released. Transforming The Beautiful Game: the Clyde Best Story will premiere in London in March 2026.