People will remember the names Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran  long after they are gone. In their fight for life they commanded global attention, but they also left a lasting impression upon the many whose paths they crossed on the road to their execution.

Nicolas Osnovikoff is one such person. The 30-year-old Chilean football manager met Sukumaran in 2013, after a long chain of email correspondence. In the art room of Kerobokan prison, where Sukumaran spent so much of his time on death row, Mr Osnovikoff bought one of the inmate's paintings - a self-portrait, for $500.

"I felt very comfortable with him and after watching most of the paintings, I chose one and made him an offer," he says.

" 'Rupiah, you mean?' " he recalls Sukumaran saying. " 'No, dollars!' " he answered. "He [Sukumaran] looked very happy and grateful and I was also very happy with my painting."

Mr Osnovikoff today took the painting to the Indonesian embassy in Santiago, hoping to see ambassador Aloysius Lele Madja​. It was his way of showing support for his friend, who, along with Chan, is due to be executed in the early hours of Wednesday morning, Sydney time.

He could not see the ambassador but is determined to try again tomorrow. "I don't know what I am going to do, but I will do something," he says.

Mr Osnovikoff has something of a fascination with Australians imprisoned in Indonesia. The story of the Bali nine first came to his attention after watching the documentary Ganja Queen, about convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby. He began to research Chan and Sukumaran's trial and imprisonment and was immediately impressed with their apparent rehabilitation.

In October 2013, following a working holiday in Australia, Mr Osnovikoff visited Bali and met Sukumaran at Kerobokan. "I needed to discover, to see with my eyes, to feel how he was dealing with all this. I needed to learn from him," he says.

The experience changed his life forever, he says. It is politeness that figures most prominently in his assessment of Sukumaran - a man who was "a little shy", but unfailing in his civility and grace.

"He was very, very, very polite and very relaxed, very calm," he says. "He was very willing to laugh about things, but not in a nervous way."

News about the 10 death row prisoners in Indonesia had been  limited in Chile, Mr Osnovikoff says, until the 72-hour notice was given at the weekend. Since then there has been significant coverage in the country's newspapers. Still, not many people were familiar with the prisoners' full stories, he says.

Mr Osnovikoff says when he tells people about his experience with Sukumaran, they tend to change their opinion of the pair and support clemency for them. A director of Deportes Valdivia​, a Chilean football club, his team has pledged its support for the "mercy" campaign, which has called on Indonesian President Joko Widodo to grant clemency.

"I think that Indonesia is wrong. The world will make them know that they are not taking the right decision," Mr Osnovikoff says.

"If I can directly say to Joko Widodo, it's not just Australia, it's not just France or Brazil, it's the world, it's Chile, it's all the Latin American countries, it's everyone that has love, that doesn't want you to kill people. Everything can be solved in different ways."

Mr Osnovikoff says "there are still many hours of hope" although he admits he feels powerless, especially so far away in Santiago, to intervene in any meaningful way. But he says he has learned from Sukumaran, whom he calls an example of humanity, strength, solidarity and humility.

"And an example of forgiveness," he adds. "Because we have to start loving and forgiving first."