Liam McBurney / PA Images Liam McBurney / PA Images / PA Images

A BRONZE STATUE of football great George Best was unveiled yesterday outside the Windsor Park stadium in Belfast.

Hundreds were in attendance as Best’s sister Barbara McNarry and former Northern Ireland goalkeeper Pat Jennings revealed the sculpture on what would have been the legend’s 73rd birthday.

Jennings and Barbara McNarry unevil the statue Liam McBurney / PA Images Liam McBurney / PA Images / PA Images

Regarded as one of the finest players of all time, Best scored over 200 goals in a career that brought him from Manchester to Australia via the US and Scotland and other places.

He also scored nine goals in 37 appearances for Northern Ireland. He also won the prestigious Ballon d’Or award in 1968

Jennings with former NI footballer Gerry Armstrong Liam McBurney / PA Images Liam McBurney / PA Images / PA Images

“As soon as you seen him in training you knew what a talent he was going to be,” Jennings said to the BBC yesterday. “It’ll do him proud. It’s lovely to get that sort of recognition and acknowledgment for what he’s done for Irish football.”

The bronze statue was made by sculptor Tony Currie.

He told BBC Sport: “As long as our statue looks like George Best, which I hope he does, that’s already better than Ronaldo statue.

He wanted to be remembered for the football, and not just as a pretty boy. That’s what we’ve captured, I hope. The movement, and the way he ran and dribbled with the ball and made a fool of so many players. It’s lovely to see so many people who had so much affection for the man.