Michael Owen: Moment I chose Real Madrid I lost control of my career and the perception of it

Michael Owen, the home-grown Liverpool idol who left for Real Madrid, knows the Trent Alexander-Arnold question is coming.

“The Trent situation is an interesting one…” he says. “Trent has done everything for Liverpool. He adores Liverpool. If he goes, no one should begrudge him a different experience in his life and career.

“Whatever happens he should be regarded as a hero. Sadly, it does affect the way people view you. It will tarnish him in some eyes even though it shouldn’t.”

If – as many assume – Alexander-Arnold is wrestling with a dilemma as the European champions hover, nobody can relate to his situation better than Owen, with Los Blancos’ visit to Anfield visit this week a reminder of the decision that fractured the former striker’s relationship with the Kop.

Owen was a beacon of the Liverpool team when, at the age of 25 and with his contract running down, Real made what he felt was a once-in-a-lifetime offer in the summer of 2004.

“When the chance came, I felt I had to give it a go,” Owen says. “Growing up, if you ask most people what is the biggest club in the world, Real Madrid is the holy grail for a footballer. The white kit, the history, the European Cups, the stadium. We are all biased towards the teams we support, but if we’re honest being wanted by Madrid is the ultimate for any footballer, so getting that chance pulled my heartstrings. It is a magical place.

“I never had big ambitions to play abroad, really, but I fit the bill as the type of player they pursued. If you are scoring goals, are a creative midfielder, or an amazing, unique type of right-back like Trent, you are seen as a marquee signing.

“They wanted me with [Luís] Figo, [Zinedine] Zidane, Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos. I looked at that and thought it would have been harder not to score. I thought long and hard about leaving Liverpool, but in the end something inside told me I would regret it if I didn’t give it a go.”

Owen did not leave on a free transfer. Even so, the £8 million Liverpool accepted was paltry for England’s last Ballon d’Or winner. With new manager Rafael Benítez settling in, elements of Liverpool’s support felt let down.

Liverpool supporters sang: ‘Where were you in Istanbul?’

Owen suffered a backlash when returning as a Newcastle player 18 months later. Some supporters jeered and the Kop engaged in a venomous rendition of: ‘Where were you in Istanbul?’ – a reference to the team moving on to Champions League glory without the player whose goals did so much to secure qualification the previous years.

Owen tried to rejoin Liverpool three times after leaving before his later spell at Manchester United, which was regarded as the ultimate betrayal of his former club. He traces the emotional separation to Madrid’s call. “The moment I chose to go to Real Madrid I lost control of my career and what the perceptions of it are,” he says.

“I don’t love going to Anfield now because I know I am not loved back. I tend to only go when I am working. It’s not that I dread going, but for a long time I used to bury my head when driving back to the academy to see friends. I have told myself since, I should not have been feeling like that. People say now: ‘It was because he signed for Manchester United.’ But the whole world knows there has been some history rewritten there. There was resentment directed at me before then when I played for Newcastle, even though I had a clause in my Newcastle contract that I could re-sign for Liverpool every summer.

“The Manchester United aspect is now an easier stick to beat me with, but when I came back to Anfield for the first time as a Newcastle player, there were a few hundred, possibly a thousand supporters, booing me. I can’t forget how I, my parents, and my former Liverpool team-mates felt. Everyone who understood and appreciated the reality of the situation was disappointed on my behalf.”

“Deep down, I know that I am no different to Trent in the same way I was no different to Steve McManaman, who was no different to Robbie Fowler and Jamie Carragher and Steven Gerrard in that we all came through the ranks, loved the bones of the academy and the club. It will always be in our heart.

“Where there is a difference is in the perception of those who came through the ranks and moved to Real Madrid and those who didn’t, whether it was an option for everyone or not. That’s been something for me to deal with.”

‘Only with age did I realise what I had at Liverpool’

Owen admits the older, wiser, version of himself miscalculated the depth of feeling on Merseyside.

“I am not a Scouser but my mum and dad are and I have lived most of my life just outside the city. There is a siege mentality and a sense of belonging associated with Liverpool so, when I got into the team, it was like: ‘You’ve put the red shirt on and now you are one of us,’” says Owen, “That was a real positive for me when I was with the club. I loved it. I felt the fans had my back, home and away. Back then I did not know what the alternative was, or that it would be so different anywhere else.

“I can honestly say in all the time I was a player and now a fan or pundit inside Anfield, I have never heard the supporters boo the players. They may get down after performances, but they don’t turn on their team.

“Honestly, it is unlike many other stadiums. And, because they are loyal to their players, they naturally want and expect the same back.

“As I got older and played for other clubs, I understood and appreciated much more the difference between what I had at Liverpool and what it would be like for me anywhere else.

“When you are younger, you’re just focused on the next match, scoring goals and doing what you can to win the league. You don’t have the time to think about how you are perceived then, or might be in the future. Your blinkers are on.

“What I have found is you ask yourself: ‘If you had your time again would you do things differently?’

“I have had to get my head around how I feel about that, and what people now feel towards me. I’ll be asking myself about that if I live until I am 80. That one decision I made in 2004 has become defining in terms of my relationship with Liverpool.

“It is not like that in other jobs. If you are working for one company and move to another, it is usually, ‘good luck and all the best’. In football, testing yourself at the biggest club in the world in a new country will have some saying, ‘how could you leave?’”

‘Players who scored a few goals get treated like legends’

No matter how he is perceived, Owen’s 158 Liverpool goals and the match-winning performance in the 2001 FA Cup final will never be airbrushed from history. His fear is that some wilfully want to forget his contribution.

He says he has compartmentalised it now, but he would hate to think any Liverpool fans are telling their children to forget his achievements at the club because he went on to join United.

He continues: “If I go into the chairman’s lounge at Anfield, I’ll be honest, it does my head in sometimes.

“I will see Carra, Robbie [Fowler], [Sir] Kenny Dalglish and Steve Heighway – real legends of the club – and then you might see someone who hardly played acting like they’re the same status.

“The equivalent would be me going back to Real Madrid and behaving like I was a legend there. I played for them and I’m proud of it, but I would be embarrassed to swan around their president’s lounge with the Madrid greats of the past because I am not one of those.

“I’ve been reluctant to say this in the past because I assure you I am not bitter, but I will say it now. I have a lot of conversations with Carra and Stevie [Gerrard] where we have mentioned some players going back to Anfield and getting a standing ovation and thought to ourselves: ‘God, if the fans knew what they were really like.’

“I played with a group of lads – a lot of us who come through the academy – who worked our a---- off every time we played, to bring success, but someone who scored a few goals for a few months and inspired a good Kop song is welcomed back as a hero. I would think that strange regardless of what the supporters thought about me.”

So will Owen offer advice to Alexander-Arnold about the choice between being the one-club legend or the new face at the Bernabéu?

“Trent’s got my number. A few of the lads have owned horses at my stables, but we generally don’t talk football unless I am working. But I would be at the end of the phone for anyone who wanted to discuss it,” says Owen.

“Everyone wants the perfect ending to a career. Jamie Carragher had that utopia – one club, a big finale at Anfield, bowing out with plenty saying you should stay for another season.

“Some of the best careers have ended on a damp squib without that fanfare. Trent knows the pros and cons. He is a sensible lad. He has to weigh all that up. If he wants to play in that white kit, in that amazing stadium with his mate Jude Bellingham, it must be tempting.”