I’ve got claret-and-blue blood, and every time I go back to England I go to the stadium.”Best’s most recent visit was in June, to collect from Buckingham Palace the MBE awarded to him for services to football and the community of Bermuda Those services have not been in football for some time. He was appointed as technical director of the Bermuda national side in 1997, but his contract was not renewed in 2000. Since then he has worked in a transitional centre for prison inmates, “advising those who are ready to be released back into society”.That advice will surely be cherished from someone who has achieved, and been through, so much in football, of which Clyde Best says in summation: “Whenever a goal is scored nobody looks at your race, do they? That’s the good thing about the game.”The Black Hammers (Pennant Books, £16.99)JOHN CHARLESJohnny the One – but he wouldn’t be the only oneSelf-styled “Johnny the One”, Charles was the first black player to appear for West Ham, making his debut in May 1963. He was born in Canning Town in Sept-ember 1944, the son of a white mother and a West Indian seaman father, and the eighth of nine children. The ninth, Clive, also briefly played for the club.Having turned down a trial with Essex at cricket because he was mourning his father’s death, Charles joined West Ham straight from school in 1959 and signed professional forms two years later at 17, captaining the FA Youth Cup-winning side against Liverpool.

His five England Youth caps were the first won by a black player at any England level. A left-back who played 132 times alongside Bobby Moore, Charles said he did not encounter any racism at West Ham. “You got the odd ‘black bastard’ but that never worried me.”From 1969 he was plagued by recurring hamstring problems, leaving the club in 1971 and joining his wife’s father in running a market stall. “At West Ham I was earning £65 a week, my first week as a barrow boy I got £200,” he recalled. But Johnny the One descended into alcoholism, suffered bankruptcy and spent time in a mental hospital before dying of cancer, aged 57, in August 2002.PAUL INCEAbused – but only because he wore a Man Utd shirtCapped 53 times by England in midfield, Paul Emerson Carlyle Ince was born at Ilford in October 1967. Having played for Essex Schoolboys, he was spotted at the age of 12 by John Lyall, then a Hammers coach, signed as a trainee at 14, joined the Upton Park youth training scheme aged 15 and turned pro a year later.He made his full debut at 19 in November 1986 against Chelsea and quickly became a regular in midfield, playing 81 games and scoring eight goals, before leaving in sour circumstances to join Manchester United. West Ham supporters never forgave Ince after a picture of him wearing a Manchester United shirt appeared in a national newspaper before the transfer had gone through, and whenever he played at Upton Park subsequently the boos which greeted him were mistaken for racist abuse.His time at Old Trafford (278 games, 28 goals) also ended in argument, Alex Ferguson dismissing Ince as a “big-time Charlie” and selling him to Internazionale in 1995.

In Italy he suffered racist chanting at away games before returning to England with Liverpool, going on to play for Middlesbrough, then Wolves, and closing his playing career last week at Swindon. Management beckons.MARC-VIVIEN FOE’Racism is a big problem everywhere. It is in Africa’Born in Cameroon in May 1975, the man known to all as Marco had won 54 caps for his country by the time he joined West Ham from the French club RC Lens for a club-record £4.5 million in January 1999, having seen an earlier projected move to Manchester United fall apart when he suffered a broken leg during training with Cameroon just before the 1998 World Cup finals in France.In his 14 months at Upton Park, Fo?cored twice from midfield in 48 appearances. He said that he encountered no racism at West Ham – “the fans were always very good to me” – but he claimed: “Racism is a big problem everywhere. There is racism in Africa.”Though he settled quickly in the friendly atmosphere at West Ham at a time when African football and African footballers were making their mark on the world game, Fo?egularly fell foul of referees, collecting two dismissals and nine yellow cards in his final year.At the end of the 1999-2000 season Fo?ame close to a much-anticipated £4.6m move to Liverpool.

Instead, the then Hammers manager Harry Redknapp sold him to Olympique Lyonnais for £6m. In June 2003, playing for Cameroon against Colombia in Lyon, Fo?ollapsed and died of a heart attack. He was 28.ANTON FERDINANDOut of the shadow of big brother steps a home boyThe youngster born in Peckham, south London, in February 1985 signed professional forms for West Ham at 17 in the same week that his older brother, Rio, completed a £30 million move from Upton Park to Manchester United.Anton abandoned thoughts of a singing career in order to sign YTS forms for West Ham, the only club he has known or, he claims, wants to know. He pays tribute to his previous and present managers, Glenn Roeder and Alan Pardew, for helping him to develop into a valued regular at centre-back.Already an England Under-18 international, he made his Hammers debut at the start of the 2003-04 season following the club’s relegation, a campaign which ended with him being named Young Hammer of the Year by supporters.