Last week saw Sky Sports Soccer A.M.'s Paul Dalglish (Kenny's son) catch up with Real Madrid and England's former Liverpool striker Michael Owen. Here's what he had to say...

How are you enjoying Madrid?

MO: I am enjoying it a lot. It has gone quite cold this winter but normally the weather is great. The football has been good, and it was difficult to start with, as the fourth striker, and everything else, but I am managing to play more games and I am scoring a few goals. Everything seems to be going alright at the moment.

Which players have you got friendly with since you moved over there?

MO: Obviously David (Beckham) I know anyway, and Woody (Jonathan Woodgate), I know. But we have our little golf school. Me, our second goalkeeper Cesar Sanchez, Guti plays a bit and Ronaldo. Ronaldo has taken my money last time, so I am after him.

What is it like playing with the likes of Zidane and Ronaldo and Figo every day? You must come home with some good tricks from training.

MO: Yes, it is a joy to watch. I think the reserve goalkeeper has more skill than I have. Out here, I just goal hang and try to snatch the odd goal in training. But they have certainly got a lot of skill. You don't see as much out on the pitch, but certainly in training it is a joy to watch.

How are you coping with the language?

MO: I can understand quite a lot. It is difficult speaking, but I have lessons as often as I can. There are a few English speakers. If the manager says something that I don't understand, he speaks a bit of English, but there are other fluent English speakers in the team. If I am playing he usually pulls me to the side and goes through it slowly for me.

What is your favourite goal that you have scored in your career?

MO: I think my goal against Argentina in the World Cup is the goal that everyone remembers mainly from me. That was big, but then I scored in the quarter finals of the World Cup and that was massive at the time - if we could have just hung on until half-time, we will never know what would have happened. The best and the one that a lot of people will remember me for is the Argentina goal.

The one in the under-15s wasn't bad was it? (Owen dribbled through half of the Scotland under-15's at St. James' Park and smashed the ball past the goalkeeper without anyone touching it).

MO: I love that goal. No one has seen it really, I know Sky have got it in their archives, but they only show it from half way through. That was by miles the best goal I have ever scored, but no one knows that goal. So I have to give out the normal Argentina rubbish.

What is your favourite goal for Madrid so far?

MO: There are so many of them...(laughs). I don't know, I have not scored any crackers. I had a big week where the first few weeks of my career here I wasn't playing much and I was a bit under pressure. I had a big week in the Champions League, we played Kiev, and I scored the winner, 1-0, and then that weekend we played Valencia and we were struggling big time in the league and we won 1-0 again and I scored the winner. I played six or seven games, and I scored six or seven on the spin, but that week was a turning point where people went from, "who is this fellow, can he play?" to "oh, he's not bad, he's alright".

I remember being at Anfield when you scored that goal at Kiev, and they announced at Anfield that you had scored, and there was a massive cheer from the Liverpool crowd. Is it important to you that you are held in high esteem by the Liverpool fans.

MO: Yes, I got a tingle down my spine when you said that then. As much as I have scored goals and done alright out here, that was one of the most important bits of news I could have had. As soon as I came off the pitch, a couple of my family were there, but those that weren't, were all at Anfield watching the game, and I had about three or four messages on my phone saying exactly that and I was just made up.

Are fans as fanatical in the streets over here (Spain) as they are back at home?

MO: Yes. Football is really fanatical. Private life, no one is really interested if you are getting married, or getting a divorce, got a new girlfriend or whatever. It doesn't make a difference over here. Football is massive here. There are two papers every day dictated to football, with the first ten pages on Real Madrid, so they have got to have stories every day.
Inside the stadium it is massively different. you can go to a footbal match and watch the crowd for 90 minutes in England, over here it is just quiet. If you do something good, they will give you a clap, but apart from that it is total silence.

What would you say was your career highlight so far?

MO: The FA Cup final (2001). We had a cracking year that year, winning all those cups, but the FA Cup was better for me than the UEFA or the Worthington, as it was, or coming second in the League.
We got battered to be fair, we were 1-0 down with 10 minutes to go, how we plucked that out was... Sami Hyppia, Stephane Henchoz, and our goalkeeper Sander (Westerveld) were great. Sami must have cleared the ball off the line three times. How we were still in it was unbelievable, and I think that was what it was when I scored the first goal, they were just thinking, "how the hell haven't we sewn it up by now?"
As soon as we scored the first goal, it is easy to say now, but there was only one team going to win it. I scored the second as well.