Owen: I Came Back For Liverpool

Manchester United forward
Michael Owen has revealed that
Liverpool refused to stump up
the money to finance a return to
Anfield when he was looking to
leave Real Madrid with Owen
moving to Newcastle United.
In an interview with
FourFourTwo magazine the
former Anfield hero reveals that
he signed for Newcastle United
because the club matched
Madrid’s valuation of him, despite
admitting the reds were his first
choice travelling to Liverpool for
talks with the club.
Owen left Liverpool for Real
Madrid in 2004 in a deal worth a
reported £8 million with Antonio
Nunez going in the other
direction. While Owen had a
successful season at the
Bernabeu scoring 18 goals in 41
games, the highlight scoring in a
3-1 win against fierce rivals
Barcelona, the Englishman
decided to return to the Premier
League with his priority a return
to Liverpool, however it didn ’t
materialise.
Owen told FourFourTwo: “It was
real. I spoke to the chief
executive Rick Parry and I was in
Liverpool with Rafa Benitez and
we were pretty close to agreeing
things. The main issue was Real
Madrid and Liverpool settling on
a deal and they couldn’t agree a
fee – plus Newcastle were quite
aggressive in their offer to
Madrid. So Madrid felt that
Liverpool weren ’t matching their
valuation of me and I thought it
would be good to go to
Newcastle.
“ It was a World Cup year and I
wanted to be playing, plus
Madrid had bought two more
strikers, so I went to St James ’
Park and thought it was great.
It ’s a very similar place to
Liverpool in a lot of ways –
especially the people, who are
football mad. I thought that, as
much as it would have been
great to go back to Liverpool,
going to Newcastle would be just
as enjoyable an experience. ”