"Since I was 10 I didn't just want to be a footballer, I wanted to be the best footballer in the world," he admitted. "There are still lots of people ahead of me but if you want to get into that bracket, you have to break out of comfort zones. That is a nutshell is why I made the life changing decision to leave Liverpool for Real Madrid.
"I have always had a burning desire to push myself and that is why I was disappointed with some of the defeatist reaction to my transfer. I don't know if it is an English trait to settle for what you've got but I was taken aback when the first thing some people said was 'how's he going to get into the first team'. They didn't say 'fantastic, he's moving to the biggest club in the world.'
"I would be lying if I did not admit that I spent a couple of days wondering if I shouldn't just stay at Liverpool. Part of my brain was saying 'just let your career run down, you're safe here. Your family is around you and everyone likes you'. But the majority of me was being ambitious. I had 10 days to make up my mind and for eight of them I felt the drive to better myself as a person and player."
The former Liverpool striker denied that he was being disloyal to the club by waiting until the final year of his contract before deciding to move on.
"I know many of the Liverpool fans will be disappointed but I like to think it is an amicable farewell. I never had any problems with Rafael Benitez and if the transfer to Madrid had broken down I was ready to resume my career at Anfield. If I was disloyal I'd have gone on a Bosman next summer.
"I said to Liverpool that I wanted them to get a fee. OK, maybe it is not as much as they might have got a few years ago, but if I'd had three or four years left on my contract, I might have been priced out of a move."
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