John Best (11 July 1940 – 5 October 2014) was an American international

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

defender. He spent six seasons in the

North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League may refer to: *North American Soccer League (1968–1984), a former Division I league *North American Soccer League (2011–2017) The North American Soccer League (NASL) was a professional men's soccer league b ...

where he was a five-time first team All Star. He later coached the NASL

Seattle Sounders Seattle Sounders Football Club is an American professional men's association football, soccer club based in Seattle. The Sounders compete as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS). The club w ...

and served as the general manager of the Sounders and the

Vancouver Whitecaps Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club is a Canadian professional soccer team based in Vancouver. They compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The MLS iteration of the club was established on March ...

. He also earned one

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with the U.S. national team in 1973.

Playing

Best began his career in England. He played for

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

in 1959 under the new manager, Bill Shankly, after which he played seven games with

Tranmere Rovers Tranmere Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they adop ...

in 1960. In 1967, he moved to the United States where he signed with the

Philadelphia Spartans The Philadelphia Spartans were a soccer team that was a charter member of the non-FIFA sanctioned National Professional Soccer League (NPSL) in 1967. Based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania they played their home games at Temple Stadium in North Ph ...

of the National Professional Soccer League (NPSL). In 1968, the NPSL merged with the

United Soccer Association The United Soccer Association was a professional soccer league featuring teams based in the United States and Canada. The league survived only one season before merging with the National Professional Soccer League to form the North American S ...

to form the

. When the Spartans folded, Best and several of his teammates, transferred to the

Cleveland Stokers The Cleveland Stokers were a soccer team based in Cleveland, Ohio that played in the United Soccer Association during 1967 and the North American Soccer League in 1968. Their home field was Cleveland Stadium. History United Soccer Association In ...

for the 1969 NASL season. When the Stokers folded at the end of the season, he moved to the

Dallas Tornado The Dallas Tornado was a soccer team based in Dallas, Texas that played in the North American Soccer League (NASL) from 1967 to 1981. Of the twelve teams that comprised the U.S. in 1967, the Tornado franchise played the longest–15 seasons. ...

(NASL). From 1969 to 1973, he played in ninety-three games and was a five-time first team All Star. In

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 10, and August 6). The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history. Events Ja ...

, the Tornado won the

NASL championship NASL or Nasl may refer to: * Nasl, Iran (disambiguation) * ''NASL Soccer'', a 1980 early sports videogame * National Association for the Support of Long Term Care, a US national trade association * Nessus Attack Scripting Language * North American ...

. Best retired at the end of the 1973 season. Best also returned briefly to England in 1968 to play for

Fleetwood Fleetwood is a coastal town in the Borough of Wyre in Lancashire, England, at the northwest corner of the Fylde. It had a population of 25,939 at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census. Fleetwood acquired its modern character in the 1830 ...

in the Northern Premier League.

National team

Best earned his one

with the U.S. national team in a 17 March 1963 game with

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. Best began the game, a 4–0 loss, and came off for Johnny Moore.

Coaching

In 1974, the NASL expansion team

began assembling its staff and roster. The owners hired

Cliff McCrath Charles Clifford McCrath (born February 3, 1936) is a retired American soccer player and coach. His greatest fame came as coach of Seattle Pacific University where he led the team to five NCAA Division II championships. He was the 1978 NSCAA Coac ...

, the head coach of the local

Seattle Pacific University Seattle Pacific University (SPU) is a private Christian university in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1891 in conjunction with the Oregon and Washington Conference of the Free Methodist Church as the Seattle Seminary. It became the Seat ...

to fill in the team's roster spots. He hired Best as the team's first head coach. Over his three years as coach, Best compiled a 43–26 record.

General manager

After leaving the Sounders, Best moved north to become the

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

of the

. One of his most successful personnel moves was hiring

Tony Waiters Anthony Keith Waiters (1 February 1937 – 5 November 2020) was an English footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He is better known for his coaching career in Canada. He managed the Vancouver Whitecaps to an NASL championship, and was in charg ...

as head coach. This move and several others led to the Whitecaps winning the 1979 NASL championship. In

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street bridges, 14th Street Bridge in ...

, the Sounders opened their season 2–7. The team ownership turned to Best who became the Sounders' general manager on 14 June 1982. The Sounders turned their season around and went to the championship game, only to lose to the

New York Cosmos New York Cosmos may refer to * New York Cosmos (1970–1985), a team in the North American Soccer League (then the top-tier soccer league in the United States and Canada) * New York Cosmos (2010), a team playing since 2020 in the National Independe ...

. Despite this success, the team was losing money after its sale to new ownership in January 1983, Best left the team.

Later years

Best remained in the Seattle area, founding Tacoma Indoor Soccer, Inc, which became the ownership group for the Tacoma Stars of the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL). He was later inducted into the Tacoma-Pierce County Sports Hall of Fame. In 1990, Best was diagnosed with kidney disease and in 2002 received a kidney transplant from his wife, Claudia.

Death

On 5 October 2014, Best died from a lung infection at the age of 74 while visiting family in Ireland.

Honors

*NASL Championships:

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. ...

''(runner-up)'', 1971 indoor *NASL First Team All Star:

1969 This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon. Events January * January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco. * January 5 **Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...

References

External links

John Best NASL stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Best, John 1940 births 2014 deaths American men's soccer players English men's footballers Tranmere Rovers F.C. players Fleetwood Town F.C. players English emigrants to the United States United States men's international soccer players National Professional Soccer League (1967) players Philadelphia Spartans players Philadelphia Ukrainian Nationals players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) indoor players Cleveland Stokers players Dallas Tornado players American soccer coaches North American Soccer League (1968–1984) coaches Seattle Sounders (1974–1983) coaches Liverpool F.C. players Stockport County F.C. players California Jaguars players Seattle Sounders (1974–1983) players Men's association football defenders English expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States English expatriate men's footballers Major Indoor Soccer League (1978–1992) commentators Footballers from Liverpool