England striker Michael Owen believes his troubled year at Real Madrid will help him make a major impact on his return to the Premier League with Newcastle United.
"I have no regrets at all about joining Real Madrid a year ago," the 25-year-old told a news conference at St James' Park on Wednesday, following his 15 million pounds move on a four-year deal.
"I'm quite an inquisitive person so when I knew of Real Madrid's interest I didn't want to spend the rest of my life without playing in another European country. And to get the opportunity to play for one of the most famous clubs in the world was a fantastic opportunity.
"You might like it, you might not, but whatever happens at least now I have no doubts in my mind and I can live the rest of my life knowing what it was like.
"Hopefully it's made me more rounded as a person and as a footballer. It was a great experience and hopefully I can bring that back with me and score the goals to help this club achieve success."
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A return to Liverpool seemed his first choice but when that did not develop he said Newcastle was the ideal alternative.
"I've been honest from the start. I have an obvious attachment to Liverpool and if that deal could have happened it would have been one big option but as the deadline approached it didn't seem that would be possible," he said.
BIG CLUB
"You only have to look at Newcastle to realise it is a very big club and an even bigger club just waiting to happen.
"I wanted to get back to the Premiership and play football and I wanted to get that passion back in my game.
"The Spanish league is fantastic but it doesn't have the passion that the English Premiership has got and the bottom line is that I wanted to come back and play in England again, waking up on a Saturday morning and getting really excited about playing in front of 50,000 supporters, scoring goals and enjoying my football.
"That's the bottom line and when you hear the manager and chairman and supporters making it known they really want you, that's a nice thing to hear."
Owen was left in little doubt about the passion - and expectation - of the Newcastle supporters as thousands of them turned up to St James' Park to welcome their latest saviour.
Newcastle have not won a major domestic honour since the last of their six FA Cups in 1955 and have got off to a terrible start this season.
They went out of the Intertoto Cup to Deportivo Coruna and have managed just one point from their first four league games, without managing a goal.
"The plan is to do as well as we can in the league and the cups," Owen said. "I love playing football but I don't just do it for the hell of it. I want to win trophies.
"It is an exciting club to join. Unfortunately they haven't won anything for a long time. In a selfish way as soon as we do win something - when not if - it will be like your country winning the World Cup. Hopefully I can be part of it when it happens."
Newcastle manager Graeme Souness added: "We've signed Michael, Scott Parker, Emre and Albert Luque in the belief that we have signed world-class players this summer and it really is now up to us to really get things going."
