Maradona died on Thursday (AEDT) at the age of 60 after a long struggle with addiction to alcohol and drugs, sparking a huge outpouring of emotion for one of the world's greatest players.

Klopp described his one meeting with Maradona as like "meeting the Pope", but believes the love shown after his death could have helped prevent some of his excesses.

"His life shows how nice life can be when you are a world-class footballer and how difficult it can be as well," the Liverpool boss said.

"He was a very impressive figure. I met him once which, for a player of my level, it was like meeting the Pope to be honest, it was really special.

"Football will miss him, I will miss him and you can see in the reactions all over the world if we had shown our love for him without wanting to have a selfie, just showing him the respect he deserves while he was still alive, I think we could have helped him."