Freedman left his role at Selhurst Park to take charge of the Whites in 2012, replacing Owen Coyle in the hot seat.
The Scot nearly guided the club to the play-offs in his first season, missing out on the final day by failing to beat Blackpool at home, and with financial cut-backs coming into effect, he failed to lift the club above mid-table thereafter.
After leaving Wanderers in 2014, Freedman also had a difficult spell in the dugout at Nottingham Forest.
“Dougie is a brilliant football mind,” Jordan said on talkSPORT. “He was a very good player and I think if he just had a bit more devilment, he would have been a top international player.
“A as a manager, when he left Palace…he was the architect of Crystal Palace getting promoted in 2013.
“It was his team, his signings – Jedinak, Bolasie, players of that nature who came in and made that side which Ian Holloway inherited and got promoted.
“There was rancour between him and (Steve) Parish, he went to Bolton. He came to me and said did I think he should go to Bolton? As much as I liked Phil Gartside, I said I don't think so.
“Bolton were in free fall, you had a dressing room full of people like David Wheater and Zat Knight who you will have a challenge with. Anyway, he went there and went to Forest, neither one of those roles worked for him.
“As a director of football it was the right thing for him because of his personality. Dougie is not an in your face, aggressive personality.
“He is much more laid back, calm, relaxed individual but his football acumen and awareness of player acquisition is second to none.”
Freedman returned to Selhurst Park as sporting director in 2017 and received plaudits for his role in the signings of Michael Olise, Eberechi Eze, Marc Guehi and Adam Wharton among others.
Last week, the club confirmed that the 50-year-old would be leaving his post to take up a role overseas and he has been tipped for a move to Saudi Arabia.
“He is a clever animal,” Jordan added. “He knows how to speak the truth without compromising power, in terms of making himself alienated from the position by having a different view.
“He is very methodical, disciplined, focused. He has a significant football brain, commercially very adroit.
“He has a significant [property](http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/homes) portfolio so he is not short of a bob or two in terms of commercial acumen. He is as smart as paint and doesn’t need to be front and centre, he doesn’t need to be the big I am.
“Whether the relationship (with Parish) was always as harmonious, I don’t know, that is for them to speak to.
“But he has done a great job for Palace and if he wants to go and have an opportunity to be part of a project that is going to remunerate him really well, then I think he has earned it… if that indeed is what he is doing.”