I first met Clyde Best two years ago during his brief stint as assistant coach at Ireland Rangers, the club for which he first played almost 50 years ago.

Standing alone on the windswept touchline at St. John?s Field on a filthy November afternoon, watching a horrendously poor game of football on an even worse pitch, the great man grimaced as yet another of his players squandered possession cheaply.

He cut a somewhat isolated and despondent figure that day. I remember him saying at the time that he couldn?t recall the standard of local football being so low while bemoaning the lack of professionalism and investment in Bermudian sport more generally.

Two years on and with an MBE for services to football tucked under his belt, these opinions remain as strong as ever. When we met at his house just above Mangrove Bay, it took him all of ten minutes to unearth the subject once again.

Yet Best is not one of those older fellows, known to many of us, who can be found sprinkled around the Island?s club grounds every weekend, tucking into their Heinekens and telling anybody who will listen how much better everything was when they were young.

As a man who made it big throughout a 15-year professional career, during which he played with and against some of the greatest players ever to kick a football, Best has credibility in spades. He is passionate and forthright yes, but his criticisms do not smack of somebody with an axe to grind or an agenda to pursue.

In truth, he comes across as an intensely patriotic and proud man who cares deeply about the Island, its people and its success.

As he put it: ?All the time I was away playing football, I always felt like I was there to represent my country and to do it proud.?

That, he said, is why he despairs at the unfulfilled talent, the lack of affordable, first-class facilities and the crumbling club grounds which still dominate the sporting scene.

He makes no apologies for his assessment of state investment in sport as ?pitiful? and accepts with a shrug of the shoulders that his comments might put a few people?s noses out of joint.

He approved greatly of the $11 million injection into cricket as a result of the national team?s qualification for the World Cup but, like many others, believes that this has to be followed up by a more profound financial commitment across the board.

?What really irritates me is when I read something controversial that somebody has said in the paper and they have been too much of a coward to put their name to it,? he said.

?I?ve always believed that if you?ve got something to say then you should say it and let everybody see you for who you really are. I?ve made no secret of my view that Government investment in sport over the years has been pathetic. I?m not blaming this Government in particular, but there?s no doubt in my mind that a lot of our social problems are down to this shortfall.

?Sport for some reason is not seen as a priority ? which is a mistake. We are an affluent country, but every year the money available to sport is pitiful compared to what is needed to improve the clubs and get school sport really going again.

?There is a lot of natural talent here, especially among the nine and ten year-olds who would give a lot of people from their age groups in other countries a good run for their money. But the standards in the leagues of both football and cricket are not what they were 20 or 30 years ago ? I don?t think anybody would argue with that - which suggests that the situation has not been handled properly.

?When I came back to Bermuda in the mid ?90s (the sporting decline) really used to bother me and I got frustrated working for the BFA (as national coach). Now I?m removed from it and it doesn?t bother me as much but I still believe we can do a lot to turn it around.?

est is a West Ender through and through. His father was a prison officer at Casemates and he would spend most of his free time as a youngster playing impromptu games of football in Dockyard against everybody and anybody who came ashore off the ships.

?I grew up down this end of the Island and when I came back there was never any doubt over where I was going to live,? he said.

?But growing up, I was playing football against men down in Dockyard when I was only nine or ten which I think really helped me to develop quickly. I had to learn how to deal with the physical side of playing against adults and I took quite a few knocks, particularly from the guys who used to come off ? they were good players and very hard.

?Back then there were basically neighbourhood teams which played each other ? this was way before the Premier Division was formed. I began playing properly when I was 12 or 13 for Ireland Rangers against the likes of Ferry Point, Scotts Hill Celtic and West Side. The standard was good and I remember the games being very competitive.?

After two years with Rangers, Best moved on to play for Somerset when he was 14 and made his national team debut soon after which was then in the charge of Englishman Graham Adams.

?It was Graham who first took me under his wing,? Best recalled.

?He obviously saw there was a bit of talent there and he made it clear to me early on that I should think about going overseas. If it hadn?t been for the faith he had in my ability I could have got stuck in Bermuda and the opportunity would have been gone very quickly.

?But he was the one who arranged a trial for me at West Ham and I didn?t need to be pushed. I knew what I wanted even then and I was prepared to do anything to make a career out of football.?

In 1968 Best boarded a plane In 1968 Best boarded a plane for England to begin a hugely successful journey which would ultimately see him command the adoration and respect of millions ? and not just for his achievements on the field.

Best?s battles against the institutionalised racism which blighted English football in the 1970s are well documented. He was one of the first black footballers to gain a regular place in that country?s top flight and he is widely credited for paving the way for a long line of black talent which came after him.

Much as he did when his MBE was first announced a few weeks ago, Best made light of his struggles against the deeply ingrained culture of prejudice ? which saw him perennially abused by a sea of racial bigots at club grounds up and down the country.

?The monkey chants and the abuse was always there but I knew from the very beginning that I had to be strong,? he said.

?I remember my Dad telling me when I was a young boy that I could do anything in life as a long as I was determined not to give in, however tough things were.

?And I never forgot those words when I was playing in England. I decided from the very beginning to have a thick skin and just get on with playing football and doing well for the team. The rest took care of itself.

?I was helped by being at a very good club. I was also surrounded by people who were very supportive. For most of my time there I stayed in digs with the Charles family who treated me like one of them. The father was black and the mother was white and it was obvious that my skin colour made absolutely no difference to her. It was great having them in my corner.?

fter eight happy seasons at West Ham in which time he netted 47 goals in 186 appearances, he left with great regret in 1976 after he was left out of both the semi-final and final teams for that year?s FA Cup.

And while at 25, he was wooed by other high-profile clubs in the UK, he decided to take a leap of faith and begin a new life in America. He was to spend the rest of his career plying his trade for North American teams, excluding one summer season with Dutch side Feyenoord.

There he played against some of the greats, including the late George Best and the master himself Pele. Best said he never felt out of place amid such talent and was not overawed.

He might have been stretching the point a little too far, however, when he described the great Brazilian ? who at 35 had already scored 1,000 goals for Santos ? as only ?quite useful?!

?I know I was still relatively young but I do not regret the decision to go to America,? he said.

?I went to Tampa originally and liked the lifestyle. The team we had was decent as well and would have given any side in the First Division a good game. We won the championship the first year and were playing to packed houses in a 50,000 all-seater stadium which was the biggest in the league at that time.

?We played against Pele and the New York Cosmos and beat them 5-1 (Best scored a hat-trick) and they could not handle us.

?You could say that I should have stayed in England longer but looking back I enjoyed my time in America and it was a thrill getting on a plane and flying all over the country to play football. I saw a lot of great things and met a lot of great people who remain friends to this day. It was a move which worked for me at the time.?

In 1982, Best embarked on a controversial football tour to apartheid South Africa with a hastily cobbled together side of professionals from all quarters. He received a huge amount of criticism for this, both at home and internationally, and was accused of cynically abandoning the moral high ground in return for a big pay-day.

Best, however, strenuously denied that he was paid handsomely to make the trip and insisted he did nothing for which to apologise.

?A lot of people said I got paid a lot of money to go, but I wish those people would tell me where all this money is because I haven?t found it yet,? he said.

?When I was playing indoor football in Canada, I played with a couple of black South Africans and began to learn more about the whole thing. My thinking was that if I could go there and play and maybe help a couple of youngsters to improve, to inspire them to play, then I would be doing some good.

?(Tennis star) Arthur Ashe went there before I did with the same mindset. What really gets me angry is the double standards attached to the whole thing. It seemed as if sportsmen were the only ones who were getting hollered at if they went and meanwhile most countries were happily trading and conducting business with South Africa.

?Why were the sportsmen singled out for criticism? After all I?d done in England with regards to racism, the criticism was a bit of a slap in the face at the time.?

etirement came in 1984 and for over a decade, Best lived in Orange County, California, coaching football and running a cleaning business. While his daughter completed her education, he remained there with his family, revelling in the climate, the people and the tranquillity.

His return home was principally motivated by his desire to give Bermudian football the benefit of his experience and expertise and in 1997, he was handed the technical director?s post at the Bermuda Football Association.

By his own admission, Best found it difficult adapting to the mindset of the amateur players and administrators at the top of local football.

He is critical also of Shaun Goater?s and Kyle Lightbourne?s decision not to return to play for their country when he was at the helm, something which he believes undermined his efforts to get the best out the inexperienced footballers at his disposal.

?It would have made a huge difference both to me and Bermudian football if Shaun and Kyle had played for the national team in their prime when I was coach,? he said.

?As it was they decided against it and I was left to work with a lot of guys who had never been around professionals and didn?t really appreciate the commitment that is required to be successful at a high level. That?s not to say there weren?t those who worked hard for me, but Shaun and Kyle?s involvement would have taken it to another level.

?I got on reasonably well with the people at the BFA but I did get frustrated with their reluctance to change and how long it took to get things done sometimes. There was a communication problem as well. It is not nice to read about things which are going on in the papers rather than be informed first by your boss.

?The way in which Neville Tyrrell handled my leaving was also very unprofessional, I regret to say, although it had been pretty clear for a while that it wasn?t going to work.?

On stepping down from his post at the BFA, Best returned to his roots in Somerset and has followed in his father?s footsteps by working in the prisons system.

Dealing with convicts soon to be released in Westgate?s Transitional Living Centre, Best said he gets satisfaction out of helping often disaffected young men find their way back onto the straight and narrow.

?It?s kind of like coaching in a way, trying to find ways to get the best out of people,? he said.

?We try and teach them things that will be useful on the outside such as how to get a job, what forms to fill in, cooking, cleaning ? anything you can think of which will help.

?We have some successes and we have some failures. I?ve been doing it for the last six years now. There?s no question that I miss being directly involved in football, but at least I?m doing something worthwhile and contributing to Bermuda in another way.?