Steve McManaman spills beans on Real Madrid Galacticos WhatsApp chat and ‘lonely’ legend in dressing room
STEVE MCMANAMAN has revealed that he is part of a WhatsApp group where Real Madrid’s legendary Galacticos still chat.
The former England attacker, 50, left boyhood club Liverpool for the Bernabeu on a Bosman back in 1999 and went on to enjoy huge success in Spain.
His four years at Madrid coincided with president Florentino Perez’s Galacticos era as he embarked on a spree of signing football’s most-glamourous names.
That led to McManaman sharing the pitch with iconic names such as Brazilian stars Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos, as well as Zinedine Zidane and Luis Figo.
They lifted both LaLiga and the Champions League twice during McManaman’s time there - and he still keeps in touch with his old team-mates to this day.
Speaking on the “Quickly Kevin, Will He Score? The 90s Football Show podcast”, he said: “There is a WhatsApp group, yeah. [With] everyone really.
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“And a lot of the players I didn’t play with - a lot of the old players, if that makes sense.
“I still play in the old boys, the veterans games, the legends games, whatever you want to call it. I still go over to play.
“I still go over to Madrid a lot. I’m a LaLiga ambassador so I go over and see a lot of my ex-teammates.”
He continued: “I was speaking to Luis (Figo) the other day - I still speak to him a lot, he still lives in Madrid so when I’m in Madrid I catch up with a lot of people. But yeah, there’s a lot of players in the WhatsApp group.”
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When asked who were the jokers in the group, McManaman replied: “They were all great, to be very honest. The more professional these players are, the more relaxed they are, I always feel, because they’re so confident in what they do.
“People used to say to me, ‘Oh, what’s he like? Were there any egos? What was he like?’ And I used to just go, ‘They were brilliant’.
“Luis was fantastic, Zizou (Zidane) was amazing - he was quiet because when he entered the dressing room he only spoke French and Italian, so he was sort of the lonely person trying to seek solace in a French speaking player.
“When Ronaldo came in he was, of course, a bundle of energy, a breath of fresh air, always with a smile on his face. He’s a fantastic character. But the most important thing, there were no egos. Everyone got on really well.
“And they all knew that we’ll have a laugh and a joke but as soon as we cross over the white line, it’s business, and that was the attitude that they all had.”
McManaman left Madrid in 2003 to return to England with Manchester City but retired two years later.
Fellow Englishman Michael Owen and Jonathan Woodgate would later join Madrid during that era - but it was David Beckham’s stint there that made the most headlines.
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Golden Balls, who won the title in his four seasons in Spain, was previously hailed as the only Englishman who could have played for Brazil by former Madrid pal Ronaldo Nazario.
Beckham also left Spanish-speaking members of the Madrid squad jealous thanks to being part of the Brazilian clique at the club, according to Robinho.