This weekend marks the 20th anniversary of Steve McManaman becoming the first Englishman to win a European Cup for a foreign team.

He remains the only Englishman to have done it.
He also remains the most successful Englishman in terms of trophies won abroad, and at Real Madrid he remains the one English player who doesn't in any way divide opinion: everyone feels he was a success.

The 3-0 Champions League victory over Valencia on May 24, 2000 was his finest hour.

Madrid took the lead in the first ever final between two Spanish teams at the Stade de France when Fernando Morientes turned in Michel Salgado's cross in the first half.

In the second period a Roberto Carlos throw was headed out to the edge of the area from where McManaman volleyed, both feet off the ground, past Valencia and Spain keeper Santi Canizares.

The goal was crucial because Valencia were the better team at the time. It was minute 66 and game over. Raul would race away to get the third with quarter of an hour remaining.

McManaman had arrived on a free transfer in the summer of 1999.

And he was smart enough to do everything he could to make his acclimatization as smooth as possible.

He arrived a month before the start of preseason to find a home for him and his wife so there was no living in a hotel for months on end.

He was already a fan of Spanish football. He took Spanish lessons, embraced a new rhythm of life and his wife found work teaching English law to Spanish graduates.

It wasn't long before he had one of the standard experiences for any Madrid player - he saw the coach sacked.

John Toshack was fired after 11 games and in came Vicente del Bosque to guide the side through to the end of the season. Losing an English-speaking coach might have been a set-back. Del Bosque spoke no Spanish and had a natural inclination towards the club's Spanish players but he loved McManaman.

‘Macca' as he still calls him was, in Del Bosque's words: 'a gentleman with a capacity to be a leader because of his ability to get on with everyone'.

His memory of McManaman highlights the way he is remembered slightly differently in Spain than in England.

In England he will always be the wiry winger who could trick his way past any defender.

But in Spain he was often more reliability than flair. He was the intelligent, hard running player who never gave the ball away and changed his game to suit the demands of the team in every game.

In that final in Paris he was playing in midfield.

The team on the night had Fernando Morientes and allinfootballncricket.website2.me Nicolas Anelka upfront and Raul in an advanced role just behind them. That left McManaman and Fernando Redondo in midfield against a Valencia side with five in the middle.