The sprightly winger was one of the most talented English players of the nineties but won most of his trophies in Spain.
Steve McManaman has told The Big Interview podcast that he decided to leave Liverpool in the prime of his career in order to sample Champions League football with Real Madrid.
The talented winger, at the forefront of The Reds mid-nineties ‘Spice Boys’ image, left Anfield for Spain in 1999 amid accusations of money-grabbing from the English press after spending months haggling over a potential new deal at Liverpool.
However, McManaman has now taken the chance to refute suggestions that the size of his paypacket played any part in his decision to leave his first professional club, pointing out that La Liga giants Real Madrid offered guaranteed Champions League football as opposed to an underachieving Liverpool side who had finished seventh in the previous Premier League season.
“It wasn’t financial, because the money Liverpool offered me to stay was virtually on a par. I wanted to leave,” McManaman, who had been overlooked for England’s 1998 World Cup squad, told Graham Hunter for The Big Interview.
“At that time I had never played in the Champions League, which was a huge thing. I was playing really good football and I needed to test myself. I felt that I needed to go.
“I wanted to go abroad, I didn’t want to play for somebody against Liverpool. I was playing good football and I had the right kind of clubs interested in me – Barcelona, Madrid and Juventus.
“They were European Champions, World Champions, they were the best team in the world. That white kit, Di Stefano, Puskas, all that. And so it was Madrid.”
It’s difficult to argue against McManaman’s judgement as, at the end of his first season in Madrid, the England winger netted a spectacular volley in their 3-0 Champions League final victory against Valencia.
The current BT Sport pundit remains one of very few British players to have taken the chance to move abroad in recent years, with the likes of Gareth Bale still very isolated in that regard.
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