Neymar's name is introduced to the conversation and suddenly Alisson Becker, the goalscoring goalkeeper, is grinning. He is impatient to tell a story from his summer.
‘In Brazil, everyone I spoke to… within two minutes they were always mentioning the goal!’ Alisson begins, referring back to his remarkable header at West Brom in May.
Everyone? Even Neymar?
‘Yeah! Yeah!’ Alisson replies, now laughing. ‘Everybody! They were all so excited about it! I played in training at the Copa America up front. We had a session when we were just having fun. So I went up front (to show them) and I scored some goals! For me, it wasn’t a surprise!
‘It was something amazing, even more special because we (ultimately) qualified for the Champions League for this season. It put a little bit of sauce on all of this. Now let’s try to win it and it will be even more special!’
It is good to see Alisson in such high spirits following a 12-month period that quarried his emotions.
There were injuries, a sudden and unexpected dip in form as Liverpool staggered through a bleak mid-winter but all that paled into insignificance when, in February, he lost his father and hero, Jose, in a tragic accident. To exacerbate his grief, circumstances with the pandemic prevented him attending the funeral in Brazil.
When he had the green light to return home at the end of the season, to be reunited with his family, everything was raw again but, in some ways, it was also cathartic. You can see when he talks the hole Jose has left will never be filled but, equally, the grief is not all-consuming.
‘Being there seeing my mother, seeing my brother, seeing my grandmother, everybody – it was needed,’ he says, quietly now. ‘It was an emotional moment of course, but it was good. It was a relief for my soul, for my mind. I went to my farm where me and my father spent time together.
‘It was emotional but it was good for me. It wasn’t something bad, you know? You suffer a little bit but it is something I will have to deal with from now on. I’ll always miss my father. I will always miss the moments we had together as a family. He was always there.
‘But it was good to see how my family is in this and they help each other. They are helping my mother; they help my grandmother, who is struggling a lot. It was two years since the last time I went to my hometown (Novo Hamburgo), so it was a long time. It was good to be there.
‘I believe a lot of people are going through the same thing because of the situation of the world. I know I’m not alone in this kind of feeling. I have many friends lost friends or grandparents because of Covid-19. With my father, it was a different situation but I still lost someone that I loved.
‘The biggest thing is that my faith helps me a lot. I really feel God is giving me the power, the strength to keep on going with everything. Also the love of the club – and the football community – is something I will never forget.’
Alisson, a universally popular figure with his team-mates and amongst Liverpool’s staff, was humbled by the messages he received and he does look refreshed, ready for what will be his fourth season in the Premier League.
He recently signed a new long-term contract, one which had been richly-deserved. His £64.6million arrival from Roma in July 2018 was just as transformative for Liverpool as Virgil van Dijk or Mohamed Salah, a man who makes the important saves look simple.
Liverpool would not have won the Champions League or Premier League without him wearing the gloves and they would arguably have not qualified for Europe’s biggest competition again, had he not gone up and leapt powerfully to meet Trent Alexander-Arnold’s 95th minute corner at The Hawthorns in May.
Retaining their place in the Champions League enabled Liverpool to head into the summer hiatus in a completely different frame of mind; they may have only added Ibrahima Konate to their squad but Alisson’s confidence about what can be achieved this season is unmistakable.
‘It is not something that gives us fear or anything else,’ he said, when asked if others strengthening made Liverpool anxious. ‘It is the opposite. We know we have to work hard. Manchester City has already has a strong side, Chelsea is already a strong side.
‘They proved it by winning the Champions League and by winning the Premier League last season, so the fact they are getting new players is not something new for us. They are already a good side and we know that we need to do our jobs otherwise we have no chance against those teams.
‘We are a really strong team with top players. The players we have here are pretty much the same who won the Premier League for the first time. What other teams are doing is not interesting for us, we have to focus on our goals, our job and do our best.’
Goals, fittingly, is an appropriate place to end. Does the taste for scoring means his personal ambitions have now moved from Golden Gloves to the Golden Boot?
‘No, no, no!’ he says, chuckling with incredulity. ‘I will stay focused on defending, on saving and leave scoring the boys. There will be a little bit more pressure on me. But, if I am needed (again)… I will be there.’
Just as he has always been.