As Steven McManaman once explained at an OTB Roadshow, one benefit of being among the Galacticos of Real Madrid was rubbing shoulders with Ronaldo.
- Originally published 3/5/19
Recalling his heady days as a Real Madrid player, Steve McManaman told OTB Sports how for one incredible night his former Liverpool teammate Robbie Fowler got a taste of what life in Madrid could be.
"Robbie Fowler came over and it was one of his first times over," he explained, the Liverpool legend visiting McManaman in the Spanish capital.
"He was in Portugal on holiday and I said, 'Why don't you come to the [Real] game?'. So he came over with his brother-in-law, who was a painter and decorator.
"They trot over and I give them a couple of tickets. We win the league and then after the game, we're on a bus going over to a fountain called Cibeles."
1999: England's Robbie Fowler and Steve McManaman | PA ImagesRonaldo House Party
McManaman convinced Fowler and his brother-in-law to join him on the Real bus where everyone was kitted out in white 'League Winners' jerseys.
"He gets on the bus with us, jumping round and celebrating," McManaman continued.
"There's people in the ground going, 'There's only one Robbie Fowler'. There's a load of English people there. So we finished that and then we go to a restaurant at about 2am.
"Eat our food, celebrate with a meal. There's loads of us there. My wife, our friends and everybody's the same. Five o'clock in the morning, 'Right, let's go to a nightclub'.
"So we got to a nightclub, carry on partying: Robbie, his painter and decorator cousin and all of us. I had a driver who used to drive me round and he came in.
"It was a Sunday night/Monday morning. He comes into the nightclub and hands me my keys and he goes, 'I have to go.'"
McManaman hadn't realised it was 9AM already.
"So we leave at 9 o'clock. What do we do? [We go] round to Ronaldo's house," he said.
"So the party goes round to his. We're in this party room. There's me, Robbie, painter and decorator and Ronaldo playing pool.
"He's got a smoke machine on, bit of music and dancing and there's chaos. There's bodies all lying round the house drunk. And Robbie's just sitting there going, 'I just can't believe this'.
"So you can imagine what the painter and decorator was like playing Ronaldo for pool!"
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