future of the English game with "cut-price imports" that threatened local development, while also proposing the increasing of odds for smaller teams to beat big clubs by having the League Cup reduced to a single leg affair, thus enabling players to be better rested as well. By 1998, following the success of his well-regarded columns, he also began writing monthly pieces for Esquire magazine. Real Madrid McManaman remains popular in Madrid. He is listed as a club legend on the official Real Madrid website, which also describes him as a man who "in only four seasons, won the hearts of Madrid's followers” owing to the “mixture of his gentlemanly nature both on and off the pitch, combined with teamwork and quality”. In Madrid, McManaman is also remembered as "the versatile Englishman". McManaman was also twice voted as the Real Madrid supporters' favourite player during his tenure at the club. The Spanish media frequently covered his love of a Madrid lifestyle, his willingness to learn Spanish and immerse into Spanish culture, his home in La Moraleja, and noted a supposed androgynous resemblance to Hollywood actress Nicole Kidman, all of which bolstered his amiable image. According to El País, fans saluted him with their 'white handkerchiefs' (as a terrace favourite) after he scored a long-range high volley from a Roberto Carlos cross against Real Oviedo in 2001. McManaman still owns a house in Spain, which is situated in the bay of La Palma. In a tribute to McManaman, four years after he left the club, ex-coach Vicente del Bosque told AS Marca, that McManaman and Geremi were the two most important players in his squad, because "together they kept the whole team united". Del Bosque added, "I was very happy with Macca. He was a caballero, a gentleman, a stupendous guy; he always had a smile, he never complained, he was great, a leader. He related to everyone very well; he united people. He had a bad time [towards the end] with achilles pain, but every day he trained with the same attitude. He was exemplary ... and a good footballer too, very good. A fantastic player in every sense." McManaman was also listed in Spanish-based British sports reporter Sid Lowe's Real Madrid Team of the Decade for the 2000s. McManaman is also believed to have influenced other British players to join Real Madrid with players such as Michael Owen stating that