Michael Owen has said he made a mistake leaving Liverpool for Real Madrid and revealed the lengths he went to try and secure a return to Anfield.
The former England striker found the back of the net over 150 times for Reds before he decided to join the Spanish giants in August 2004 for £8 million with midfielder Antonio Nunez heading in the opposite direction.
Owen's stay in Spain only lasted 12 months and he was desperate to make a return to his boyhood club.
"At every stage -- every summer -- I was on the phone to Carra [Jamie Carragher] telling him to find a way to get me back," Owen says in the recently published book, "Ring of Fire."
"'Does Rafa [Benitez] want me?' I'd say. 'Does Kenny [Dalglish] want me? Does Brendan [Rodgers] want me?' It was circumstance that stopped it happening.
"Whenever I was available, Liverpool had too many strikers. And when Liverpool wanted me, I was injured. By the end, I wasn't the player I had been before and they simply didn't fancy me. I wasn't good enough.