Steven Gerrard said he “nearly passed out” after receiving a message from Diego Maradona on Instagram.
The Reds legend, who currently manages Rangers, took part in a social media challenge in which he listed six players that made him fall in love with football.
The challenge has been doing the rounds among footballers, former players and fans alike - and Gerrard opted to include a star-studded cast of attackers and midfielders in his selections.
Fellow Liverpool greats Ian Rush and John Barnes made an appearance, while Paul Gascoigne, Gary Lineker, Zinedine Zidane and Maradona completed the six.
And 39-year-old Gerrard opened up about a message he received from World Cup winner Maradona after picking him in his list.
“I actually had a message yesterday and nearly passed out,” he admitted on Sky Sports’ The Football Show on Thursday.
“Diego Maradona had private messaged me on Instagram. That made my day, and I was absolutely delighted to get a reply from him. Well, he's probably after my job!”
The selections have provided Gerrard with a break from the uncertainty and disagreements shrouding Scottish football amid the coronavirus outbreak - though he claimed that he would have liked to have picked ten players rather than six.
“Rush and Barnes were my two heroes,” he added. "I think this challenge needed to be stretched to ten. Six wasn't enough.
“I think from an international point of view it was always Gary Lineker who scored all the goals that made you jump off the couch.
"Gazza [Gascoigne], probably the best English footballer of all time. My two Liverpool ones were Rush and Barnes but I would have liked to have Robbie Fowler and Jamie Redknapp from my younger days.
“We need to stretch it to ten but I was really happy with the six I picked.”
