Former Real Madrid and Liverpool star Michael Owen has laid bare the emotional toll of his move to the Spanish giants in the summer of 2004. He wept bitterly on the way to the airport, overcome by the realisation he was leaving the club he had called home throughout his career.
Speaking to FourFourTwo magazine, the former England striker looked back on the switch. The chance to pull on the white shirt proved impossible to resist, yet walking away from Liverpool, the club of his life, left a mark he still feels to this day.
"I remember weeping bitterly on my way to the airport, and I was thinking: what am I leaving behind?" Owen said.
He was 24 at the time, a Ballon d'Or winner in 2001 and a one-club man. "I had a feeling that if I left, I would have already spent a long time at Liverpool, and I could always go back there," he explained. "So I thought I should go through the experience and enjoy it."
What swayed him was the glamour. "The Galácticos stars, that white shirt, and the way everyone walks out onto the pitch as if they were angels, as well as that amazing stadium and the different culture," he said.
The call came during Liverpool's pre-season tour of the United States. Owen's agent rang to tell him Real Madrid were interested.
Sharing a room with him was Jamie Carragher, who quickly worked out what was going on and tried to talk him out of it. "Don't go! They have Raúl, Ronaldo and Fernando Morientes, and you won't get a chance to play!" the defender warned.
Owen admits he was torn right down the middle. In the end, the pull of the Santiago Bernabéu tipped the balance.
The moment he signed has stayed with him. "Do you know that feeling when you sign something and you think there's no going back? When you say to yourself: my God, what have I done?" he said.
Even so, the England star refuses to use the word regret about that step.
His time at Real Madrid lasted just one season, 2004-2005. Owen played 45 matches and scored 16 goals, but he never nailed down a regular starting spot in a squad packed with the biggest names in the game. A year later, he came home to join Newcastle United.
Leaving Liverpool went down badly with a section of the support, and his later move to Manchester United in 2009 only soured that relationship further.
He signed off on the decision that shaped his career with one telling line: "The last thing I thought was that I would leave Liverpool."