Clyde Best’s family and friends were visibly emotional as they got the first chance to see the completed documentary on the life of the Bermudian football legend.

A small group of about 30 people were on hand at Bermuda College on Wednesday afternoon to watch Transforming the Beautiful Game: The Clyde Best Story, which outlines Best’s importance to football and the struggles he overcame.

A short excerpt of the film had been shown at Cambridge Beaches in November but after watching the entire 90-minute documentary for the first time, Best’s wife Alfreda insisted that the production should be used as an educational tool for youth on the island.

“It's so intriguing and very educational,” she said.

“It would be very good for young children coming along that can look at this and learn from it. It’s so nice that this is being done now while he’s alive because it’s usually one of those things that comes after a person is gone. For us as a family it’s really an exciting time.”

Best’s daughter, Kimberley, said that watching the film had proved highly emotional for her.

“It’s been an amazing journey and very special to be a part of,” she said.

“It’s been such a passion for produce Dan Egan, his team and all of us. It’s now so exciting knowing that it's coming to fruition and we're almost at the finish line.

“It’s been a lot of emotion for us as a family over the years. I don’t think we realised how much emotion there was going to be and it stirred up different things that we probably forgot about and my dad forgot about.

“I always tell people that he’s more than Dad. He’s had this amazing journey and such courage and integrity to do what he did, which was absolutely awesome.

“The story is surreal and we’re excited to see the final cut and really to celebrate him. It’s long overdue but we’re going to be really happy to be a part of that.

“He’s everyone’s hero and beyond dad to me. He's my hero and just a really good human being. The world needs good humans and he’s one of them, so I’m happy and I think Bermuda as a whole is going to be happy when the film is released.”

Edward “Icewater” Smith, who coached Best as a youngster at Ireland Island Rangers, said the film took him down memory lane. The 94-year-old is featured in the film recalling the part he played in the aspiring footballer’s journey.

“I don’t put any emphasis on myself, but it’s an excellent production,” Smith said.

“It took me back in time, especially when Clyde was a youngster. He made wonderful progress, matured well and I think he set an example for many.

“If you can only get the young man today to humble himself, they can go very far. They're having a problem with humility in their life and being disrespectful, which is a terrible thing.

“Watching this film gave me a lot of flashbacks. I didn’t realise he had that amount of speed, but he improved when he went abroad.”

Social activist Glenn Fubler feels that Best should be an inspiration to young people in Bermuda and implored them to watch the film and learn from Best’s example.

“It demonstrates that a teenage Black boy from little Bermuda could go to one of the biggest platforms in the world of football and leave his mark,” Fubler said.

“If young people can really appreciate this story, then all those young people that are out there in the margins of our society, that can let them know that they’ve got places to go.

“What it does is it helps with their sense of identity and it helps our community to recognise that we’re not better than anybody, but we can build our own with everybody.”

Fubler, a former teacher, believes there is a lot more to tell about the football legend than can be captured in 90 minutes.

“I’ve been involved right from the start,” he said.

“When I read Clyde’s autobiography, I said that’s got to be made into a movie. I was hoping that it could be made more than a documentary to really capture a lot of things, but of course I appreciate challenges like limited resources.

“I knew this story was really powerful when I read the book about five years ago. Not everything has been put in there, so it still leaves room for other people to take it forward.”

Producer Dan Egan was pleased with the reaction and feedback from the small audience.

“The purpose of this screening was to do a sneak peek of the film so Clyde could see the movie for the first time surrounded by an intimate group of friends and supporters,” he said.

“It was also really important to have shown it to an audience of this size to see their reaction, to see if they laughed at the laugh lines and how they moved with the movie.

“I was very happy with their attention span and that they were glued the whole time from the beginning to the end.”

The film features in-depth interviews with some of football’s most respected voices , including Ian Wright, Geoff Hurst, Viv Anderson, Garth Crooks, Rodney Marsh, Howard Gayle and Harry Redknapp.

Powerful contributions also come from Randy Horton, Bobby Barnes, Patrick Horne, Carlton Cole, Paul Davis, Ade Coker and Kasey Keller, along with Best himself.