In the end, there was no fairy-tale farewell under the floodlights. No rousing ovation from the crowd. No tearful goodbyes from his colleagues.

Instead, a five-minute pre-recorded video in the confines of a warmly-lit room, released on social media, marked the closing of the curtains. The words, spoken in Portuguese, appeared rehearsed rather than spontaneous, read out as they were from an A4-size sheet of paper. Interspersing the speech was a montage of cherished memories that offered a whiff of nostalgia at best.