Former Real Madrid striker Michael Owen has declared to BBC 7 Live’s Sportsweek that Gareth Bale “would do particularly well in signing for Real from a football point of view”.
However, the England international has warned the Welshman that “from a family point of view, the changes are huge”. “I underestimated that when I went to Real Madrid”, he said.
Owen made the switch from Liverpool to Madrid in 2004 to spend one of the hardest years in his career. “When you get over there, you want to move into a house and get settled, get your wife happy, your kids happy and your family and everyone else happy, and you’re trying to change as well, but unfortunately you’re stuck in a hotel for five months”, he confessed.
“The legal system and all these things to buy a house are so slow. We wanted to do it as quick as we could, but I was in a hotel for five months with a young child. Owen claimed he was stuck in a hotel with his wife Louise and his baby Gemma. They would put their daughter to bed at 7.30 and tip-toe round in the darkness.
The former England striker, who made the shock switch from Liverpool to the Bernabeu in 2004, was stuck in a hotel for five months with his baby Gemma and wife Louise. The couple would put their daughter to bed at 7.30pm and tiptoe for the rest of the night darkness.
Like Owen when he moved to Real, Bale and his partner Emma Rhys-Jones have had their first child, Alba Violet. In his autobiography, Owen admits when he got back from training he would often find his wife and daughter “bored to tears”.
He also confesses the fact of not speaking Spanish made it very difficult for him to make friends. He missed his family and England, so he decided to go back after just one season with Los Blancos.
