"It was as wonderful as it sounds. It was fabulous playing with some of these great players, training with them every day was brilliant" - Michael Owen talks Galacticos on Off The Ball.
Yet it only lasted a single year. This week on Team 33, we re-examined the Galactico era at Real Madrid to make a case that the strategy of signing big-name players had a discernible long-term impact.
But I want to look at Michael Owen, the last Galactico to pass through the doors of the Santiago Bernabeu during Florentino Perez's first period as president.
The former Liverpool, Manchester United and England striker joined Real in the summer of 2004 and in the intervening decade there have been question marks over his time in Spain.
But look at the pure numbers and Owen must be regarded as a success on the pitch.
You can listen in to our quick Real Madrid Galacticos segment, two minutes into the podcast or download on iTunes:
Part of the problem is that Owen made a slow start to his Real career and had to wait until the eighth round of La Liga to notch his first goal of the 2004/05 season, with a well-taken finish in a 1-0 win against Valencia:
But from then on in, he went on to score five goals in his next seven games, including against Malaga, Getafe and Albacete. Scoring on the final match-day of that La Liga season against Real Zaragoza meant he finished with 13 league goals.
To put that in context, that made him Real's second top-scorer in the league for the season and joint-10th in that campaign's goalscoring charts.
Only Ronaldo (22 goals) outscored him at Real, with Owen finishing four goals above club legend Raul, and also scoring in a 4-2 Clasico win over Barcelona.
When you consider that Owen only played more than an hour in about 15 league games that season due to competition with Ronaldo and Raul, it really makes his Real goalscoring record feel far more impressive.
It is also noteworthy that he scored Real's first goal in a game on seven occasions that season, which shows that his interventions were generally crucial.
He did not make much of a goal-scoring impact in the Champions League, but the only real area of negativity was his life off the field as his family struggled to settle.
Listen to this Off The Ball interview to hear what Owen had to say about his Real career:
"My family struggled. I could write a book on the year. I enjoyed the football but my family wanted to come home," Owen told Off The Ball in an interview in 2013, adding that he "loved every minute of it".
But the Chester native has also spoken of instances when he used to drive to Madrid's airport to collect English newspapers as he struggled with the lingo - although not as bad as this parody, you'd reckon:
Real Madrid's fans, like most supporters, judge players by what they manage to do on the pitch, and in Owen's case he must be given more credit for the number of goals he scored before he departed for Newcastle.
Download the brand new OffTheBall App in the Play Store & App Store right now! We've got you covered!
Subscribe to OffTheBall's YouTube channel for more videos, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest sporting news and content.
