When it comes to looking at English players who have played abroad in the past, tales of mix fortunes are ever present. On the one hand, you’ve got the success of players such as Gary Linekar at Barcelona, Kevin Keegan at Hamburg (winning two consecutive European player of the year awards during his time there) and Glenn Hoddle’s successful spell at French side Marseille, but on the other hand you’ve got many who have struggled to adjust to playing in a foreign league. Michael Owen had a very slow start to life at Real Madrid and only managed 18 goals from 41 games; Jonathan Woodgate had one of the worst starts in history, scoring an own goal and then being sent off for two bookable offences on his debut, in an equally torrid spell for the Spanish giants, both seeking refuge quickly back to English football at Newcastle and Middlesbrough respectively. Back in the early days, when perhaps we as nation weren’t so open minded about European football, calling Ajax, A Jax and so forth, Paul Gascoigne arrived in the capital of Italy, signing for Lazio and greeting the chairman with an Italian phrase ‘tua figlia, grande tette’, which translates to ‘your daughter, big tits’.
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