Football players will always divide opinion among supporters. And when it comes to Liverpool, there is arguably no-one in their relatively recent history that does that more than Michael Owen.
Coming through the club’s academy alongside the likes of Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher, Owen quickly became one of the most talented strikers in world football. A little over four years after making his debut as a 17-year-old, he would win the Ballon d’Or to cement his place as the world’s best.
Given Owen’s talent and his affection for Liverpool, it would have been thought that he would stay at the club for close to the full length of his playing career. On this day in 2004, though, that idea was officially put to bed.
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August 14, 2004 saw Owen unveiled as a new player for Real Madrid. It was a deal that brought both pride and sadness at Anfield that one of their academy graduates was both leaving the club, but yet signing for one of the biggest in world football.
Real president Florentino Perez was, as ever, delighted to be signing one of the world’s best strikers. The Liverpool academy starlet fitted into the Spanish giants' philosophy, according to the club’s president.
"Signing Michael Owen is following our tradition,” said Perez after the unveiling of Owen. “We are signing an excellent player with talent who is able to give us something special."
"He fits perfectly into the Real Madrid culture. Not just because of the way he plays but because of his behaviour off the pitch."
As ever with transfers, the deal to take Owen to the Santiago Bernabeu was filled with vast amounts of speculation and rumours. The striker was under contract for another year at Anfield before his exit, and even in the days leading up to his move away there were hopes that a departure wouldn’t happen.
It first began in April 2004 when reports started to surface of Liverpool looking to enter negotiations with Owen over a new deal. Two months later in July there were even rumours that an extension would be likely.
"Talks are ongoing and we are optimistic." Those were the words of a Liverpool spokesperson, but yet a month later Owen would be wearing a Real Madrid shirt.
Just days before Owen's departure was confirmed, Liverpool played a Champions League qualifier away to Austrian club AK Graz. Owen did not play in the game, and Benitez was inevitably asked about the striker's future as the main topic of debate, despite his side winning 2-0 in Austria.
"When I decide the starting XI, it's because I have confidence in the players," Benitez told Channel Five after the match. "We have four good forwards and today I played two of them (Djibril Cisse and Milan Baros).
"I can't predict the future. I'm only concentrating on the present and our performance tonight, which was good. At the moment Michael is one of our four forwards... I don't want to say anything else."
Owen would leave a few days later. Benitez confirming the striker's exit with a very honest assessment of the situation that was presented to him and the club.
"When I arrived here, the problem of the situation was that Michael had 14 months on his contract to run," said Benitez after Owen’s departure. "I now have three strikers.
"It's bad that Michael's gone but we have three very good forwards and I'll be looking for a solution in the future. I hope that Michael can play in Madrid and Nunez can play in Liverpool."
One positive, of sorts, that came from Owen’s £8million move to Madrid was the arrival of a new player. Antonio Nunez was signed in a part-exchange deal with the Spanish giants.
Even after receiving Nunez as part of the deal, Benitez made it clear that he still wanted to look for a replacement in the transfer market. Djibril Cisse was set to arrive from Auxerre, but Benitez still wanted more.
And Benitez was also keen to make it clear that there were no feelings of animosity towards Owen, or vice versa.
"I would hope to use the money from Michael's deal to bring those players in quickly," said the boss. "But I must explain we were very, very happy with Michael. He trains well and is a fantastic player.
"For us we know he must go because his contract finishes in a year. But that was not the problem, we had waited one year and two months for a new contract. And we knew that Real Madrid knew that.
"It was impossible to control the situation. For us it was bad but at the end it was impossible. He will sign a contract with a good team in Real Madrid and we need to use this money to balance the team.
"We were very happy with Michael, we wanted Michael here a lot of years but a long time had gone by without signing a new contract. Last year Real Madrid tried to sign the player and now they have done."
"To suggest that we didn't want Michael and he was not happy here is untrue," Benítez added. "Michael was very happy when I spoke with him last week and we wanted him to stay, but the club had been waiting for a year already when I arrived for him to sign a new contract. Two months later he still had not signed.
"The problem is Real were aware of that too and talked with his agent and the player, and then everything changed. I'm sure the club talked about the contract and tried to sign him up, but sometimes you can't control it.
"It's down to the agents. In football now, the agent controls many situations. I knew Michael was a wonderful player and I have no doubts he still is, but the situation changed as soon as Real came in. Then the situation was difficult to control, and bad for us."
Years later, Owen would open up on the day he officially left Liverpool. Having come through the youth ranks and training at Melwood, the club always had a special place in his heart.
He knew that he was signing for one of the biggest clubs in the world, but that did not stop him from being upset over leaving Liverpool. He would later admit that his emotions got the better of him on his journey to the Spanish capital.
"I didn't sleep for a week beforehand," Owen told Goal in May of this year. "And even on the drive to the airport, I was crying my eyes out, I don't mind telling you.
"You think you're gonna be a Liverpool player for life but then you think: 'Oh my God, it's Real Madrid – I'll regret this forever if I say no'.
"It was a chance to experience a different league, a different country, a different language, a different culture. It was about being able to play in that famous white kit, to play in the Bernabeu, to play with Zidane, Figo, Beckham, Roberto Carlos.
"But even then, two seconds later I was thinking: 'No, I wanna be at Liverpool for the rest of my life'. So, it was just one of those really tough, life-changing calls."
"Even after I made the decision to go, I was also comforting myself by thinking: 'Ian Rush left Liverpool for Juventus and he came back, so I could maybe do that too'.
"So, before I left, I spoke to Rick Parry, who was the chief executive at the time. 'Can we just have like a gentleman's agreement that you'll buy me back after I've done a couple of years in Madrid?'
"And we did that, but you never can plan your career perfectly. I didn't get the chance to spend the rest of my career at Liverpool but I had an incredible experience in Madrid."
Owen would last just a single season at Madrid before being sold to Newcastle United in 2005. Despite no longer being a Red, the striker still had hopes of one day returning to Anfield.
Benitez put an end to that idea in 2009, when he admitted that despite considering a move to bring Owen back to Anfield, he opted against it. This was despite going down the route of bringing club legend Robbie Fowler back to the club in 2006, years after his exit.
“We had contact with different people and were analysing the situation,” Benitez told The People in July 2009. “But if you want to play Torres and Gerrard there is not always a lot of space for other players.
“When I brought back Robbie Fowler it was a different situation. We were looking for someone who could understand his role clearly and he was a good finisher. But we have a World Cup coming up and all the top players want to play. In his position it would be hard for Owen to play every week at Liverpool.”
Owen would, of course, go on to have a stint with Liverpool’s bitter rivals Manchester United, and later finishing his career at Stoke City upon his retirement in 2013.
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