Michael Owen arranged for £200 worth of pennies to be left on Kevin Keegan's desk after losing a game of head tennis against the former Newcastle United manager.
Keegan and assistant Terry McDermott challenged Owen and Nicky Butt to a doubles match at the club's training ground back in 2008.
Owen believed it was 'impossible' that 'two old-age pensioners' could beat them so rather than playing for pride, he upped the stakes with a cash bet.
To Owen and Butt's horror, the Magpies' management team 'absolutely battered' them - and they had to pay Keegan and McDermott back.
"A couple of days later, they were chasing us for the money so we said, 'We've got to pay them but we can't just live with this. We've got to get them back somehow," Owen recalled on Back of the Net.
"So I phoned my Dad and said, 'Can you go round all the banks in Newcastle and try to get £200 worth of pennies?' That's 20,000 pennies.
"I got to the training ground and as soon as I got back in from training, I called my Dad. He was out in the car park and, now, the hard bit was getting all of this money into Kevin Keegan's office before he came in.
"We got a few people to help us - literally ripped all the bags as quick as we could - and stuck 20,000 pennies on to his table in a huge pile. It was brilliant.
"Anyway, we waited and waited. Kevin Keegan came in, opened his door, looked at his desk with a massive pile of pennies on it and knew straight away it was me and Butty. He turned round and we burst out of the changing rooms laughing our heads off.
"So even though we got beat, it was almost a victory for us and never again did he ask us to play head tennis. And that is a true story."
