He was Celtic's greatest captain of Celtic's greatest ever side.
Today, Lisbon Lion Billy McNeill died after a battle with dementia at the age of 79.
READ MORE: Celtic legend Billy McNeill dies aged 79
Tributes have flooded in for the Celtic legend who became the first British player to lift the European Cup after captaining Jock Stein's famous Lisbon Lions side to a 2-1 victory over Inter Milan.
READ MORE: Tributes paid to Celtic legend Billy McNeill
McNeill's 790 competitive appearances for Celtic is a club record, with the defender featuring for the Parkhead club between 1957 and 1975.
Billy McNeill, @CelticFC & @ScotlandNT legend, has died at the age of 79.
— FIFA.com (@FIFAcom) April 23, 2019
In 1967, he became the first British man to lift the European Cup - one of a staggering 3⃣1⃣ major trophies he won with Celtic as player and manager 👏 #RIP pic.twitter.com/oeQTGSGw3k
McNeill's family released the following statement: "It is with great sadness that we announce the death of our father Billy McNeill. He passed away late last night (Monday, April 22) surrounded by his family and loved ones.
READ MORE: Peter Lawwell pays tribute to 'hero and friend' Billy McNeill
"He suffered from Dementia for a number of years and fought bravely to the end, showing the strength and fortitude he always has done throughout his life. "We would also like to note our love and appreciation to our mother, Liz, for the care, devotion and love she gave to our father throughout his illness. No one could have done any more.
"Whilst this is a very sad time for all the family and we know our privacy will be respected, our father always made time for the supporters so please tell his stories, sing his songs and help us celebrate his life."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here