Jamie Carragher “was convinced” Michael Owen shouldn’t leave Liverpool to join Real Madrid.

Owen burst onto the scene at Anfield as a teenager, spending eight years in the first team before departing in 2004.

The striker himself claims that he decided to sign for Real “to prove Carra wrong”, his former team and roommate having been there when he received the call from his agent.

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Carragher says his argument was not “just thinking of Liverpool”, and rather took Real’s striking options at the time into consideration.

“He actually took the call to go to Real Madrid in the room in pre-season,” he told Sky Sports.

“So I was the first person, before maybe even his family, who knew about the Real Madrid situation and we actually had a good chat about it. I was convinced he shouldn’t go.

“I wasn’t just thinking of Liverpool, I was desperate for him to stay, he was a top player – but more that, at that time, Real Madrid had Raul, Morientes and Ronaldo. He was just convinced that he would still play. He was saying, ‘well when I came through at Liverpool it was Robbie Fowler and Stan Collymore, that didn’t bother me!’

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“He had such self-belief. Stevie Gerrard was after him, thankfully no Real Madrid call!”

Gerrard, coincidentally, named Owen as one of the two best strikers he ever played alongside at Liverpool.

“I played with Michael when I was quite young,” he said last month. “I always knew that Michael was on the same page and the same wavelength. I didn’t use to have to look twice.”

Football 365

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