Home net waits for Owen the falling star

"I gave 100 per cent for Liverpool but, when you have been somewhere for 13 years, maybe it all comes too naturally. Now I'm certainly going to have to stretch myself," he said.

In theory Owen was Real's next galactico, joining the likes of Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo and Beckham to become a member of the club's footballing aristocracy. In reality he was never accorded the full galactico status. His signing, unlike that of his predecessors, was a whirlwind deal concluded in order to camouflage Real's failure to tempt Patrick Vieira to the Bernabeu.

Owen, 25, was never as close to the club president Florentino Perez's heart as the other big signings he had had to prise away from their respective clubs, his price tag of £8m was more bargain basement than designer emporium and, despite being a former European Footballer of the Year, he was placed on a second-tier salary scale at Real.

Again, unlike his predecessors, he did not walk into the starting line-up. Instead, he had to knuckle down and win over the sceptical coach Jose Antonio Camacho, who was still smarting at Perez's failure to buy him the ball-winning midfielder he wanted. Owen's sure-fire finishing did eventually allow him to leapfrog Fernando Morientes in the pecking order and challenge the golden boy Raul for a place up front alongside Ronaldo.

But Camacho threw in the towel after just three league games and Owen had to start from scratch, first with his successor Mariano Garcia Remon and then with the Brazilian boss Wanderley Luxemburgo. On all three occasions he let his goals do the talking, frequently rescuing Real with some typically expert but unflashy finishing.

At the mid-point in the season Owen had the best goals-per-minutes-played statistics of any striker in Spain, and ended the campaign with 16 goals in all competitions. He had finally carved out a place for himself in the starting line-up and forced the club captain Raul to drop back into midfield in order to accommodate him.

But the arrivals of Seville's rampaging forward Julio Baptista and the Santos crowd-pleaser Robinho spell the end for Owen. In a World Cup year, Owen cannot afford to bide his time on the bench waiting for a game behind Ronaldo, Robinho, Raul and Baptista.

Owen has always been careful to say that his first aim is to stay at Real, but since the end of the season sources close to Real have said that he has a limited future at the club. With the arrival of Robinho he has little choice but to ask for a move. He is expected to sit with the Real top brass next week before the team leave for their pre-season training camp in Austria to discuss his future.

Looking back on what is likely to be the end of a brief Spanish adventure, Owen could be forgiven for casting envious eyes across to the Anfield comfort zone, especially after his former team-mates lifted the European trophy he hoped to win at Real. But his performances on the pitch mean that he can hold his head high after surviving a torrid season at the Bernabeu.