Clyde Best launches his long-awaited autobiography The Acid Test tonight at a signing at Brown and Co, hoping the book will inspire young Bermudians to pursue their dreams.

This year marks 40 years since Best, a trailblazer in English football in the 1970s as one of the few black players playing in the old first division, left West Ham United to join Tampa Bay Rowdies, of the North American Soccer League.

Best also played in Oregon for the Portland Timbers, in the Netherlands, then back to the Timbers before finishing in Toronto in the early 1980s. But it is what he did during eight years at the East London club that made Bermudians most proud, overcoming all manner of racism in and around the English game.

Best played with the likes of Bobby Moore, the World Cup-winning England captain, Geoff Hurst, Billy Bonds and Trevor Brooking in the West Ham team. Another former team-mate, Harry Redknapp, wrote the foreword for the book.

“I’m over the moon, I finally finished it and I want to thank [Royal Gazette journalist] Jonathan Kent and Dr Derek Tully who helped to get it going in the first place,” Best said ahead of today’s book signing, which is scheduled for 6.30pm. “It’s been in the works for about three years; Jonathan lit the flame.”

In the book, Best shared his experiences of going over to West Ham in 1968 on a trial as a 17-year-old after Graham Adams, then the Bermuda coach, made the arrangements. He spotted Best’s talent two years earlier and selected him in the national team as a 15-year-old.

The rest, as they say, is history.

“I talk about going to England as a young boy and going through the things I went through, about how you have to be strong and to carry yourself a certain way and not let it stop you from achieving your goals,” Best said.

He recalls arriving in England on a rainy Sunday morning in August, with no one from the club there to meet him at the airport after a mix-up over the arrival time. Just out of high school, Best was due at West Ham for a weeklong trial, but his first experience of the London weather left him homesick immediately.

He stuck it out and made a quick impression on the coaches at the club and eventually went on to become English football’s first black hero striker. A groundbreaking figure, he overcame intolerance and bigotry at a time when racism was rife on football’s terraces. His advice to young players is that it takes more than talent to succeed as a professional footballer.

West Ham groomed the talented youngster, who went on to score 48 goals in 186 games for the club. Ron Greenwood, the West Ham manager, who later managed England, became a mentor for Best, who he described as the “best 17-year-old I have ever seen”.

A powerful, bustling centre forward, Best inspired other young black footballers, including the likes of Shaun Goater, Kyle Lightbourne and Nahki Wells, and many more from the Caribbean who followed him into English football.

“The main thing is to let people see that a person from a country this size can achieve what he sets out to achieve in world football,” Best said. “There was a lot I had to go through, but when you embark on something like that, you can’t think of yourself — you have to think of people coming after you. When I look and see what is happening in English football today, it gives me great satisfaction.”

Modern-day professionals make a lot more money than Best and his peers did in the 1960s and 1970s, but he says he has no regrets. “The game has changed, but what I do like is the players are paid very well for what they do, which they should have been many years ago,” he said.

“It’s nice to see young players getting their rewards, but the basic principles of the game remain the same: you have to put the ball between the goalposts and have to entertain the people. Coaches need to let players express themselves a bit more.”

Back in Best’s time at West Ham, Bermudians had to wait a week to watch English football on a highlight show on Big League Soccer. Now, several games are shown live every weekend. “Television is taking over football today and as soon as somebody comes on the scene, you get to see him,’ he said.

“I applaud the players making the money they make; I just hope they use it to help people who need the help. You can’t be envious of them.

“People like Stanley Matthews made even less than us. Being a trendsetter meant I was able to help these players to get what they are getting today.

“I have to go to England in the next couple of weeks and I hope to meet with the PFA [Professional Footballers’ Association] to discuss one or two things because there are former players who need help and we have to make sure that these players are looked after.

‘My friend Jimmy Greaves has had a stroke and is in a wheelchair, so we have to make sure people like him who contributed so much don’t have to want for anything. Martin Peters has also been sick and I usually see him when I go over there. You pray for them and hope they are going to be OK.”

The Acid Test also follows Best to the United States, where he joined Pelé, Franz Beckenbauer and Rodney Marsh as one of the pioneers of the professional game across the Atlantic.

The book tells of the extraordinary ups and downs of one of English football’s historic figures and is the last word from a player who overcame many obstacles to become a top footballer.

Best was inducted into the Bermuda National Sports Hall of Fame in 2004, awarded an MBE in the 2006 New Year’s Honours List for services to football and the community in Bermuda, and two years ago he had a road next to Somerset Cricket Club, his boyhood club, named after him.

“We are very excited to be hosting what is, for practical purposes, the international launch of Clyde Best’s new autobiography, Acid Test, here at The Bookmart at Brown & Co tomorrow evening,” department manager Martin Buckley said. “The event will kick off at 6.15pm and we are expecting a big turnout of Mr Best’s many fans.”

• The Acid Test is selling for $26.95 and those wishing to be sure of their copy can telephone The Bookmart on 279-5443 or e-mail mbuckley@psl.bm