Dan Egan is the executive producer of the new documentary film “Transforming the Beautiful Game: The Clyde Best Story,” which is premiering in London March 25, and will make its way to the United States later this spring. Best is the Bermuda player who became a starter as a teenager with West Ham United in the top-flight English league in the late 1960s.
He was the first Black man to become an English star. In 1975, Best moved to the North American Soccer League, in which he played for the Tampa Bay Rowdies and the Portland Timbers. Best’s story is chronicled in this film, and it’s the story of race in world and North America soccer, with the presence of dozens of players, coaches, managers and family members.
John Shrader talked with Egan about the film, Best and what the story he is telling in this film. Here are excerpts from that conversation.
SOCCER AMERICA: Why Clyde Best and why now?
DAN EGAN: Clyde is the most impactful sportsman you never knew. As a 17-year-old boy becoming the first Black superstar of the modern TV era in England, Clyde really broke the color barrier in what is now the Premier League. And as a 17-year-old boy that’s quite a feat considering the time in London, the racial tension in London and around the world. Clyde did it without really any help, without any support, without any fanfare.
He just traveled from Bermuda to London on a one-way ticket and went straight to the first division for West Ham United. The idea of rising from a small place to achieve something big was the driving force behind telling this story. So very few people know the true story of Clyde Best and what he achieved.
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