Michael Owen has claimed that Jamie Carragher tried to TALK HIM OUT of a move to Real Madrid when the pair were still Liverpool teammates.

Owen was at a crossroads in his Anfield career back in 2004, with only one year left on his contract and mentor Gerard Houllier having departed.

Incoming manager Rafael Benitez had just arrived at the club, and was about to embark on an era-defining campaign which would culminate in Champions League glory against AC Milan in Istanbul.

Ballon d'Or winner Owen would play no part in the Champions League festivities at the end of the 2004-05 campaign, however, instead opting to move to the Santiago Bernabeu amid his own doubts that Liverpool could challenge for trophies.

And the ex-striker has now revealed that his former roommate Carragher tried to put a damper on the offer of a move to the Spanish capital, boldly declaring his reservations that Owen would get in the team.

Madrid had Raul, Ronaldo and Fernando Morientes - who ended up replacing Owen on Merseyside - on the books back then and were in the midst of their Galactico transfer policy when Florentino Perez signed Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo and David Beckham in consecutive summers.

With such competition for places, the defender doubted that his fellow Liverpool academy graduate would make the grade.

'Don't do it!' - Owen reveals Carragher Madrid warning "Me and him are lying on separate beds in America, in the same room," Owen told Simon Jordan on the Up Front podcast.

"We used to room together and we were on pre-season tour and Rafa Benitez has just taken over. I think we had just played Celtic in a pre-season tour game.

"We're just lying there talking away and my phone went and I answered it. It was my agent and boom... 'How'd you fancy Real Madrid? They've just called me'.

"As you know David Beckham, we had the same agent. I'm on the phone to him for five minutes.

"I put the phone down and Carra says: 'Don't do it!' and I'm like: 'Why not?' He says: 'You've got Raul there, Ronaldo, Morientes, are you going to get into the team with all those great players?'

"Anyway that's another story."

Owen scored 16 goals in 45 outings for Madrid and, true to Carragher's warning, he often found himself on the bench.

The forward moved back to England in 2005 with Newcastle United, ahead of the 2006 World Cup, but never quite managed to reclaim the form that persuaded Real Madrid he could stand in line as a Galactico, when he scored 158 goals in 297 Liverpool games.