Michael Owen and David Beckham are two of the biggest names English football has ever produced, with both plying their trade for arguably the two biggest clubs on the planet, Real Madrid and Manchester United.
They both burst onto the scene at a young age, with Owen's stunning solo goal against Argentina at the 1998 World Cup scored when he was just 18 years of age. Beckham was even younger when he made his United debut aged 17.
The early stages of Owen's career saw him net goals at a rapid rate for Liverpool while still a teenager, playing his way into the hearts of the Kop faithful. While not as prolific given his position out on the right, Beckham was equally adored by United fans who were immensely proud to see an academy graduate play regularly for club and country.
11 years after making his first-team debut at United, Beckham took his superstar status to the next level when he joined Spanish giants Real Madrid in the summer of 2003 following a well-publicised falling out with then-United manager Sir Alex Ferguson.
While it is rare to see a Brit line up for Los Blancos, just 12 months later there was another when Owen joined Beckham at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Given the duo had been England team-mates for quite some time at that stage and were the only two Three Lions representatives out in the Spanish capital, it was widely expected that the two would strike up a close bond.
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However, Owen explained soon after that the two barely spoke outside of football and their families very rarely mingled together.
"As much as we ended up living close to David and Victoria Beckham and were two English families living abroad in the same city, there wasn't much in the way of social life as far as them and us were concerned," Owen penned in his autobiography.
"Given that both Louise and Victoria were quite lonely and both looking after young kids, they'd occasionally see each other while we were training. That was the extent of the friendship, however.
"This perhaps wasn't a surprise given that, by the time we found ourselves in Madrid together, David and I had even less in common than we ever had."
Beckham's style and flair off the pitch was also a talking point throughout his time at Madrid, but that sort of thing did not interest Owen, as he pointed out.
"I certainly didn't like wearing the trendy gear or mingling among socialite company. David and Victoria on the other hand, were both bona fide superstars in their own right.
"They were operating on a completely different stratosphere from a social perspective. I never once got the impression I was on the inner circle of David's group of friends."
That rather bitter remark isn't even close to the most scathing comments he has provided on Beckham, with Owen blaming his former Real Madrid team-mate for England's elimination at the 1998 World Cup after he was red-carded for kicking out Diego Simeone.
"While it was clearly pre-meditated, it was immature and petulant more than it was violent. But for me, that almost makes it worse," Owen claimed.
"All I can say is that, as I sit here now writing this book, knowing how lucky a player is to appear in one World Cup, never mind more than one, I’d be lying if I didn’t say that what David did that day hadn’t let every single one of that England team down.
"Did he deserve the abuse he got afterwards? Certainly not. What human being needs to see his or her effigy being burned? But David let us down, and I still hold some resentment about it today."
Owen lasted just one season at Real Madrid before returning to the Premier League for an ill-fated stint at Newcastle, while Beckham went on to kickstart the Major League Soccer revolution by joining LA Galaxy in 2007.
