“I just felt as if I was a bit of a fraud.”
Steve McManaman reveals that he felt like a ‘fraud’ during the celebrations of Real Madrid’s Champions League win in 2001.
The Liverpudlian started the game, and even scored in the final, but admits that he wished he had have won it with Liverpool.
McManaman had came through the academy at Merseyside, was a firm fan favourite and had a lethal partnership with Robbie Fowler.
However, his ambition to play European football meant that when the Spanish giants came knocking in 1999, he couldn’t say no.
On paper, it looks to be the correct decision as he goes on to win La Liga titles and two Champions League trophies.
Speaking on the latest episode of ‘We Are Liverpool’, McManaman reveals that the celebrations were missing something.
“We’d just won the first Champions League and I’d only been at the club 10 months,” he recalled on the We Are Liverpool podcast.
“The lads were in the dressing room, singing Spanish songs and lifting the president in the air – which I did.
“But I just felt as if I was a bit of a fraud. I just thought to myself, ‘this is just weird’.
“I got my phone and took myself out of the dressing room and went along the corridor and sat on the floor and listened to messages,” he continued.
“I remember thinking, ‘I would have loved to have done this with Liverpool’ – because I would’ve been right in the forefront of it all and really throwing myself into it.
“I was very much on the periphery of all the celebrations just because I didn’t understand it.”
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