Calls to honour Burnley Football Club's greatest-ever player, Jimmy McIlroy, have been a long time coming for those old enough to remember his skills on the Turf.

But in my opinion it is not just his talent with a football that warrants respect. I'm not old enough to have witnessed Jimmy dazzle the crowd on the pitch, but I have been lucky enough to meet him a few times.

I don't want to get into comparisons with modern-day footballers because the game is completely different now, but I suspect Jimmy would still be the same quiet, modest and, above all, loyal man if he had been playing today. He was also a talented writer as his days at the Burnley Express testify.

I first met Jimmy a few years ago at his house in Burnley, the town he has called home for 50 years or so. He made me a cup of tea and we sat and chatted.

I was doing a feature about the area he lived in but really wanted to talk about his football experiences, after having heard many tales from my dad who had watched Jimmy in his pomp.

However, I could sense Jimmy preferred to talk about the town and its people rather than himself or his achievements. As many will know, he was brought up in a small village in Northern Ireland, not too dissimilar from Burnley.

Jimmy fell in love with Burnley and its people and wanted to give something back to the town. Winning the league championship in 1960 immortalised him. Two years before, he reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup with Northern Ireland, a comparable feat considering the "smallness" of the teams.

It is a shame football is no longer like that. All football fans are romantics at heart and love to see the underdog do well. They also love to see loyalty.

In our story on Friday, Jimmy recounted a tale of being courted by a big Italian club who offered him more money and a villa overlooking the Mediterranean. His wife's response: "Why would we want to leave Burnley?"

Giving Jimmy the Freedom of the Borough would be a fitting tribute to Burnley's most-loved adopted son.

At a time when another gifted footballer, Cristiano Ronaldo, is stamping his feet and apparently wanting to turn his back on the club that made his name, it is refreshing to hear the tale about Jimmy Mac.

Click here for more on this story - and how you can sign the petition to give Jimmy the freedom of the borough