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A Bermuda football fan has launched a stirring campaign — to get football legend Clyde Best knighted.
 
The former West Ham player is revered on the island for his trailblazing spell in English football that paved the way for other islanders to cross the Atlantic and try their luck in the UK.
 
Best, who played alongside the likes of Geoff Hurst and Bobby Moore at the Hammers, was also often targeted for racial abuse by the crowd in an era where black players were struggling for recognition and acceptance. Best was made an MBE in 2006 for his services to football and the community in Bermuda.
 
Now Paget resident Gerald Bean wants Best to go further up the honours ladder and hopes his efforts will trigger a response from Best supporters at home and abroad. He has asked that all emails and letters be forward to the below address and, after four weeks, he will draft a formal letter to the Cabinet office in a bid to get their support.
 
Bean passionately hopes the campaign will snowball and his idea has humbly been given the green light by Best, who told the Bermuda Sun: “As an individual it’s not something I have control over. I don’t have a say on what is bestowed upon me.

“You have to what you have to, and be the best person you can be. You know in your heart what you’ve done and everyone has seen what you’ve done, you don’t  have to yell about it. If he (Gerald) wants to do this, then I glorify him.
 
"[Him doing it] is a privilege and an honour. I think of the likes of Sir Geoff Hurst, Sir Trevor Brooking, Bobby Moore – he never got it but I still consider him a sir -  Sir Everton Weekes, Sir Garfield Sobers, Sir Viv Richards – to be in the company of these men would be an honour.”
 
Bean added: “It’s been all these years  and people are still talking about him.

“You look at all the sportsmen [that have been knighted] and he’s right there with them as a trailblazer – Botham, Richards, all these people.

 “I watched him locally and through the years. When you think of all the names he was called when he was on the field, people talk today of mental toughness, he had to be tough. Out on the pitch from a little place like Bermuda – and then he had to go out there and do it again. I hope this thing is going to go all the way.” He added: “Let's get this done so we can be even prouder of Clyde and ourselves for making it happen. If we don’t do this, it won’t happen.”
 
Anyone wishing to help or join the campaign, get in touch with Gerald Bean at:
“The View”
4 Mission Drive
Paget
PG 06
Bermuda
[email protected]

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