Michael Owen was left in floods of tears as he swapped Liverpool for Real Madrid.
After netting over 150 goals in nearly 300 appearances and playing a pivotal part in the club’s treble-cup triumph in 2000/01, Liverpool let him go for a mere £8million in the summer of 2004. Despite the allure of joining the world’s most illustrious club, the move was a bitter pill for the England forward.
Back then, Owen was convinced he’d hang up his boots at Anfield. Even as he departed, he believed a return to Anfield was on the cards, a dream that ultimately fizzled out, despite lasting just a season in Madrid.
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“The last thing I thought was that I was going to leave Liverpool,” Owen told FourFourTwo magazine in 2019. “Eventually I agreed. But do you know when you sign something and think there’s no going back? I remember crying my eyes out as I went off to the airport thinking, ‘What am I leaving behind?’.”
Owen also revealed how Jamie Carragher didn’t mince words about his chances in Madrid. He recalled: “We were on a pre-season tour in America and my agent phoned me while I was in my room with Carragher, who got wind of what we were talking about.
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(Image: PA)
“I put down the phone and he said, ‘Pfft, don’t go. They’ve got Raul, [Brazilian] Ronaldo and Fernando Morientes you won’t get a game’.”
After his sole season in Madrid, Owen played for Newcastle, Manchester United and Stoke City, but his dream of a Liverpool comeback never came true. He said: “I just had this overriding feeling towards it [going back to Liverpool]. I thought, ‘if I do go, then I’ve already played for Liverpool for a long time and, hopefully, I could always come back’.
“I had to go and sample it the Galacticos, that white kit, where everyone prances about like an angel, that amazing stadium, a different culture.”