Jan Molby, the former great Liverpool midfielder who was tough and full of talent and guile, works as a football pundit on Danish television.

Now he finds himself - unwittingly and perhaps a little unwillingly - the focus of an almost worldwide social media sensation that has started to spill over into his everyday life.

Jan, now 59, won three league titles and two FA Cups during his 12 years at Anfield, an illustrious career which nevertheless did not prepare him for the attention brought his way by comedian Milo McCabe.

Milo, whose mother hails from Liverpool, has a penchant for masquerading as professional greeter and member of the Greeters' Guild, Troy Hawke. 

In the past he has welcomed baffled shoppers into emporiums like Poundland and W. H. Smith, but was recently given the gig to enliven the arrival at pre-season training of the Manchester City squad - you can watch the resulting video at the top of this page.

Amongst those encountering Troy for the first time was confused genius Kevin De Bruyne, who was given the following advice as he passed by: "Any doubts, just ask yourself, what would Jan Molby do?" 

On YouTube the unlikely encounter between Troy and the team has been viewed almost 700,000 times, while the Kevin clip taken from it has clocked up more than three million views.

Now it's possible to buy merchandise - like a birthday card or T-shirt - asking that all important question: what would Jan Molby do?

Troy Hawke

So what does Jan Molby make of it all? Speaking to Trev Downey on the Anfield Index podcast, he said: "During the summer break I don't mix with a lot of people I don't know. I spend a lot of time with family and friends, and we had a bit of banter about this Troy Hawke thing. People said it was quite funny, and then the season started and I forgot about it.

"On the train going down on Friday [for the Fulham-Liverpool game], there was this announcement on the Tannoy, something about the train being full or something like that, and this fella goes - I could see he'd been looking at me, people recognise me, and he just said, 'What would Jan Molby do?' 

"I'm thinking, don't be starting that, I can do without this following me everywhere. 

"But I like it in a way, because I've kind of disappeared off the TV here the last 20 years because I work in Denmark, so a lot of people don't see me, they might remember the name - and so I've kind of been shoved back into the limelight a little bit.

"In terms of what Troy is doing, selling things like cards and T-shirts, it's for charities, for things like food banks on Merseyside, so if you have to buy someone a card why not get one saying 'What would Jan Molby do?'

"What Jan Molby would do I have absolutely no idea."

We think Jan is far too modest. A reliable source has told Heswall Nub News that, at a recent meeting in the Bank of England, Governor Andrew Bailey looked up at his colleagues and asked, simply:

"What would Jan Molby do?"