Legendary former YMCA and Jamaica footballer Sydney ‘Syd’ Bartlett died in the Intensive Care Unit of a New York hospital on Saturday following a prolonged kidney-related ailment. He was 70.

Bartlett, regarded in some circles as the finest footballer that Jamaica has produced, will be buried today in Manhattan, New York after spending almost a decade in a nursing home. He has often been compared to Allan ‘Skill’ Cole as Jamaica’s best ever footballer.

“He was one of a kind,” Bartlett’s close friend and former Jamaica technical director Winston Chung-Fah told the Observer from his Cayman Islands base yesterday.

“He was not a man who talked a lot, he did not boast and he was extremely private,” Chung-Fah said.

Bartlett, with his unique style of dribbling, characterised by his two index fingers in the air as he clinically carried the ball with precision, represented Jamaica during the late 1950s into the 1960s and was a part of Jamaica’s first World Cup qualification squad of 1965 which went down 2-3 to eventual qualifiers Mexico at the National Stadium. Bartlett, who was instrumental in both of Jamaica’s goals, had his shorts ripped almost to shreds in that match, courtesy of defenders who tried to hold onto him every time he headed toward goal.

The top line forward, known also as “The Worm”, was a member of the feared YMCA five-man frontline of the 1950s and 60s that also included fellow Jamaican star Lascelles ‘Dallas’ Dunkley, Peter Lewin, Elvin Schloss and George Davidson, with midfield support from national representative Henry Largie, Hopeton Kenton, captain Milton Taylor, among others.

“He was incredible as a footballer,” Bartlett’s colleague and friend, New York-based professor Basil ‘Bagga’ Wilson said from his Long Island home yesterday.

Wilson, a former Kingston College Manning Cup star from 1959 to 1961, is trying to co-ordinate a memorial service in Jamaica early next year, which he hopes will fully recognise the life and work of Bartlett.

“He was charismatic as a player. Every time he picked the ball up, it was headache for opponents. He was one of the best that we have ever produced and I just hope that we can have a memorial service that would be fitting for the contribution that he has made to Jamaica’s football,” Wilson said.

A past student of Gaynstead High School in St Andrew, Bartlett has lived in the United States since the 1960s when he went there to play professionally for the New York Generals, one of the first Jamaicans to do so. He also suited up for Jamaica Bays, a Diaspora team comprising several Jamaica players including Ruddy Pearce, Lloyd Walker, Donald ‘Billy’ Perkins, Paul Thomas, among others.

With strong connections to the East Kingston communities of Doncaster, Rollington Town and Franklyn Town, Bartlett left an indelible mark on Jamaica’s football to the extent that the Kingston & St Andrew Football Association named the Syd Bartlett League, involving teams in the Corporate Area’s third division, after him.

“There was never a man that I saw who could carry the ball like Syddie,” Chung-Fah said.

Bartlett, who leaves behind five children, was also a competent wicketkeeper/batsman at cricket. Many of his friends still believe that he could have represented the West Indies had he opted for cricket over football.