Former Liverpool and Real Madrid forward Michael Owen has revealed that he had an agreement in place to move back to Anfield after sealing his shock switch to Newcastle 17 years ago.
The Ballon d’Or winner quit the Merseyside outfit in 2004 for an £8million fee following a stellar few campaigns. Despite scoring 16 goals in his first season in the Spanish capital, Owen was often second choice.
He made the decision to leave the Santiago Bernabeu after one year due to his lack of opportunities and was welcomed by a huge crowd at St James’ Park after Newcastle secured his services.
Despite his warm reception on Tyneside, Owen has revealed that he only wanted a move back to Liverpool, having been made aware of the Reds' interest in him by Real Madrid president Florentino Perez.
Speaking on BT Sport’s What I Wore, the 42-year-old said: “When I was leaving Real Madrid, I spoke to Liverpool. They wanted to buy me back. They put in a bid of £10m. They sold me for £8m, put in a bid for £10m and I thought, ‘I'm there, I'm going to go home’. I said, ‘I’d prefer to go back now, I’ve had a great experience but I’d prefer to go back’, thinking it’s Liverpool.
“[Perez] said, ‘Okay, well it’s Newcastle’, and I was like, ‘What?’ I was told obviously on the q.t. by Liverpool that they were going to put in a bid, so I just assumed it was them.
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“I was like, ‘No, I’ll go back to Liverpool but I’m not going anywhere else’. He [Perez] said, ‘Newcastle have bid £16m, if Liverpool do that then you can go there. But if not, you either stay here or go to Newcastle’. I was like, ‘Okay, I’ll stay here’, obviously putting on a poker face.”
In the end, a deal to move back to Anfield proved too difficult to facilitate, with the Reds not willing to match Los Blancos' asking price for the England striker.
Owen, meanwhile, decided instead to join Newcastle. The Magpies agreed that the forward could depart St James’ Park for his former club further down the line.
“I spoke to Liverpool again and said, ‘If you just go to £12m, I’ll hold my nerve and force them [Madrid] into a corner’,” he continued. “But Liverpool said, ‘We can only go to £10m’. So then I had a big decision to make. We had just signed Robinho, we already had Ronaldo and Raul.
“We [England] had a World Cup coming up at the end of the year and I needed to play all of the time. I spoke to Newcastle and Newcastle agreed that if I signed for them, I could do one year and they would then sell me to Liverpool for an agreed fee of £12m.
“Then if I do another year, then they’ll sell me to Liverpool for £8m, and another year for £4m. So every year, it would be more attractive for Liverpool to buy me back.”
Despite that plan being in place, Owen saw an emotional reunion with his former side scuppered due to his ongoing injury issues at Newcastle, with Liverpool then moving onto alternatives.
“The mad thing was I was hopefully going to be going back for £12m, did my knee [at the World Cup], so then Liverpool bought [Fernando] Torres [in 2007] and [Luis] Suarez [in 2011], and it [the return] just never happened. At the end of every year, I obviously tried to go back,” Owen said.
The gifted centre-forward made the controversial move to Manchester United in 2009 and finished his career at Stoke City before retiring in 2013.
