According to the former England international, he move because ofJamie Carragher telling him he would struggle to get into Real Madrid’s starting XI.
Ownen broke into the limelight in the 1996/97 campaign and scored 23 goals in 44 appearances for the Reds.
Three years after winning the Ballon d’Or, Owen completed an £8million move to Madrid in 2004.
Although, he never settled in Spain and joined Newcastle United the following summer.
Owen says he had sleepless nights ahead of his Madrid unveiling as he lacked the tricks which the Bernabeu crowd craved.
‘It was one of the worst parts of my life to be honest,’ Owen told talkSPORT.
‘I knew it [the unveiling] was coming and I’d often looked at these Barcelona and Real Madrid players in envy, as soon as they were announced they’d grab a ball and do all these tricks.
‘I thought, I can’t do tricks! Give me a ball and I’ll smack it in the goal. That was my main panic more than anything else. It was keeping me up at night thinking what am I going to do?
‘I thought to myself I’m just going to volley the ball and hit it as hard as I can. As soon as they rolled the ball to me I picked it up, smiled to the cameras and then just volleyed it.
‘They threw me another one, so then I volleyed that one as well! I ended up avoiding it all together in the end thankfully.’
Owen claims Liverpool team-mate Carragher played an accidental role in his switch to Madrid by trying to warn him off the move.
‘I was in America, me and Jamie Carragher were sharing the same room. We were on a pre-season tour and Rafa Benitez had just taken over at Liverpool,’ Owen added.
‘My agent phoned me and said, “Madrid want to buy you”. I just remember putting the phone down after a couple of minutes discussing it and Carragher has looked at me and said, “Don’t do it”.
‘And I said to him, “Why not?” and he said I wouldn’t play there. That actually made me sign for them, thinking I’m going to prove Carra wrong!
‘I always say to myself that it was a nice problem. How could you complain about Real Madrid being interested in you?
‘Talking of sleepless nights… one day I was thinking I can’t leave my family and friends [at Liverpool]. I was virtually born at this football club and had come right through the ranks.
‘But then if you don’t go you’ll have sixty years of thinking what might have been. It was the worst problem in the world, but a lovely problem at the same time as well.’
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