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Within that nexus he was able to do so with the grace, humour and commitment that made him a beloved teammate and fan favourite, and also a fine public sporting figure, an athlete who poured energy, life and love into providing moments of uplift and connection in the shirts of Liverpool, Wolves, Porto, Portugal and his first club, Paços de Ferreira.

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There is no sensible response when someone dies so young, with an entire second human life as father and husband still to be lived.

But at a time when footballers are present constantly in our lives, when to exist in that form is to carry a distinct kind of responsibility – one players such as Jota gladly assume – his death will be a source of much public grief too.

Everybody liked Diogo Jota.

He signed in September 2020 and set off like a train, scoring seven goals in his first 10 games and adding speed, drive and expert finishing to that mid-Klopp team.

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Overall, and we must now say finally, Jota played 182 matches for Liverpool in a revolving folk?hero frontline that also featured Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mané, Roberto Firmino, Divock Origi, Luis Díaz, Cody Gakpo and Darwin Núñez.

Perhaps because Jota had that lightness about him, the kind of footballer who barely seems to leave a dent in the grass, who, for all the tactical match-smarts seems still to be playing the same endless teenage game, just in the way he moved and twirled into space.

Perhaps because he was a notably intelligent forward, one of those players where you feel you know them just by watching them, every run and pass part of some high-speed internal monologue.

Probably it has something to do with the way we observe sports people now generally, something to do with the way the game has become more remote, the connection coming in other ways, through the figures on the screen, the way they move and react, a strange kind of public-private intimacy.

Plus, of course, this is just such a violent interruption.

That was the key moment for me and then it was just: ‘Make sure you control it right and you hit the target,’ and hopefully it’s in – and it was!”

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Jota also mentioned his song that day, which was sung relentlessly around Anfield at full-time, a coronational moment in a career that had begun in the hush of Covid.

“In my first season I scored a few winners as well, late, but there was no crowd and everybody was telling me: ‘You should see it if this was full,’ the feeling, and I could feel that tonight.

Anfield will remember Diogo Jota for ever.