Michael Owen: Reboot : My Life, My Time by Michael Owen

Author:Michael Owen [Owen, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Michael Owen, England, Liverpool, Manchester United, Newcastle United, Real Madrid
Publisher: Reach Sport
Published: 2019-09-02T23:00:00+00:00

REBØOT_12

A NEW DYNAMIC

Yet I did make the decision to uproot the family and leave Liverpool for Spain. The magnetic draw of the continent, and arguably the best club in the world, was just too strong.

And once the wheels were in motion, I just went along with it all – which included sitting on the bench for Liverpool’s Champions League qualifier in Austria against Grazer AK because, by this point, Real Madrid’s representatives had been to Liverpool to finalise the deal.

Part of that conversation inevitably included an undertaking to make sure that I wouldn’t be cup tied for my new club. As much as that made sense to everybody, it only served to make the reality of my decision even more real.

Even on the way to the airport to fly to Madrid, I was still very much on the fence as to whether I was making a decision that I’d regret for the rest of my life. One part of me was excited by the opportunity that lay ahead. Another was absolutely tortured by the life we were leaving behind. As much as I’d talked it all through with as many friends and family members as I could and received mostly support, the whole concept still felt like the most enormous wrench. Reality had now set in. There was no turning back. I know I cried for a good part of that journey to the airport.

Bizarrely, something that was really worrying me about arriving in Madrid in the short term was the keep-up routine every new player has to do in the Bernabeu centre circle! As a prospective Galactico you’re expected to perform, do tricks, to dazzle.

The problem was, while I knew I could basically keep a ball in the air as long as anyone, I’ve never had any tricks whatsoever! I was a no-trick pony whose formative years had been spent perfecting the art of putting the ball in the top corner, not balancing it on the back of my neck or doing ‘around the worlds’. I was so nervous about going on the pitch, maybe dropping the ball and everyone thinking I was crap that it nearly swayed my mind about going through with the commitment to sign.

When it came to it, I went on the pitch and had all the customary photographs taken. And then, inevitably, that moment came when they threw a ball at me – and then every camera in the place trained in on whatever I was going to do with it.

Panicking, I thought, I’m just going to volley this…

Hoping the crowd would think I was doing a nice thing by gifting them a souvenir, I volleyed the first ball as hard as I could into the crowd!

Then another ball came and I volleyed that into the other end. A succession of balls arrived and I just smashed all of them into the crowd. It seemed easier. I couldn’t face the idea of having to do any tricks. And I think it was convincing; I never really had to wow the fans.

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