Randy Horton could be forgiven for looking back over his shoulder and wondering what might have been in the wake of Nahki Wells’s potentially career-defining move to Huddersfield Town.

Wells became the first Bermudian to break the seven-figure barrier after joining the Sky Bet Championship side for a club-record fee of more than £1.3 million last week.

He might have well been the second Bermuda player to don the blue-and-white stripes of Town, with Horton, a free-scoring striker himself in his heyday, almost joining the club in the late 1960s.

Horton instead blazed a very different footballing trail, opting to move to the New York Cosmos in the then glitzy North American Soccer League, where he became an instant hit. He does, however, in moments of self-reflection, question his decision to turn his back on the English game and head west instead for the star-spangled NASL.

“I was glad to see Nahki sign for Huddersfield because I’d spent time training at the club way back in the Sixties,” said Horton, who was studying for a teachers’ degree in Oxfordshire at the time.

“I was in the UK for three years and also played cricket in the Yorkshire League for a club called Muirfield, which is just between Huddersfield and Leeds.

“At that time, I was undecided about whether I would stay in England — and I still think about what might have happened had I done so. The English league has always been the league that kept people’s attention.”

Horton went on to carve out a distinguished career in the NASL, winning the Rookie of Year award in 1971 before claiming the title and MVP accolade as the league’s top scorer the next year.

After the 1972 season, Horton was offered a contract with Queens Park Rangers in England, but decided to remain with the Cosmos and complete his Master’s degree at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

As a committed and uncompromising centre forward, Horton’s attributes likely would have been well suited to the muck and nettles of the English game, with the former Somerset Trojans man adamant that he would have been equally as successful in England as he was in the United States.

“I was offered a deal at Queens Park Rangers by their manager Gordon Jago when they were in the Second Division,” said Horton, who became principal at Warwick Secondary School.

“I think I would have been a success had I gone, but I was 28 years old and was thinking about the future. If I’d gone, I wouldn’t have been able to complete my Master’s degree. I’m happy about my choices, though, and that I went the way I did because it served me well.”

Horton, a former PLP government minister and now the Speaker of the House of Assembly, is closely monitoring the fortunes of Wells, whom he believes has a “natural knack for scoring goals”.

He says it is only a matter of time before the former Bradford City player makes the next step up to the Barclays Premier League.

“It’s wonderful to see Nahki’s career progressing,” Horton said. “I saw his goal at the weekend and the guy just has the knack for finding the back of the net — that doesn’t come easy for most people.

“He’s got the knack of knowing where to be at the right time and he’s a clinical finisher. Hopefully this is another step before he moves to the top flight.”