Michael Owen made his debut on 6 May 1997 against Wimbledon and scored in a 2-1 defeat. Owen who only turned 17 last months and was described as the next Kenny Daglish, the next Ian rush. In an interview with the Guardian. Liverpool manager Roy Evans stated that would be likely to involve in Owen in more games despite his age. “Michael Owen is now very much in frame, if you are good enough you are old enough. He has got the right parament and I don´t think the big games will bother him too much.” Michael Owen had been performing exceptionally in Liverpool’s youth and reserve-team, scoring 31 goals in 26 games. In addition, Owen was only 16 years old while most of the other players were 18
In his first full season in 1997-1998, Owen was added to the first team to replace injured Robbie Fowler and had an amazing season. He won the premier league golden boot as the joint top scorer with 18 goals, 23 in all competitions. He won the PFA (Players Football Association) young player of the year and finished third in the PFA player of the year, behind Dennis Berkamp and Tony Adams. Despite Owens goalscoring threat, Liverpool did not manage to win the league and fell out of the title challenge following a run of bad results in February. Liverpool gave Owen a 10.000 a week contract for 5 years which made him the highest paid teenager in English football history at the time. The following season, Owen retained the Golden boot although he got injured and missed about a month of the Premier League.
Owen did not win a trophy with Liverpool until they won a treble in 2000-01. After a six-year trophy drought, Liverpool won the FA Cup, League Cup, and UEFA Cup. Michael Owens impressive performances earned him the European Player of the Year award. Be become the first English player to win the award since Kevin Keegan in 1979 and no Englishman has won the award after him. Owen was Liverpool’s top scorer every season since 1998 before he signed Real Madrid for a fee of 8 million pounds on 13 August 2004.
Owen was given the number 11 shirt and was played with many of the best players in the world including Raúl, Ronaldo, Zidane and David Beckham. Owen had a slow start for and was often benched. He was criticized for his lack of form by the Spanish press. Despite the criticism, Owen had the highest goal per minute ratio and scored 13 goals in La Liga. Following the signings of Robinho and Júlio Baptista, it was speculated that Owen would return to the Premier League after one season with the Spanish giants.
On 24 August 2005, Newcastle United signed Owen for 16.8 million pounds. Liverpool and Everton were also interested however they did not meet Real Madrid’s asking price. Owen wanted to increase his playing time to have a better chance to play in the 2006 world cup he stated in an interview with the BBC: "If Real had said I would start every week, I'm sure I'd still be there now. They made it clear to me there were other strikers in front of me and that left the teams back in England. The two teams showing the most interest were Newcastle and Liverpool.” Owens return to the premier league was not one that he would have wished for as he suffered a couple of injuries in his first season. In December 2005, Owen broke a metatarsal bone in his foot and was ruled out of action until 29 April. his injury proneness went from bad to worse as he damaged an Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his right knee against Sweden in a group match in the 2006 World Cup and was did not play football for around a year.
Shocking move to Manchester
Following a disastrous season in 2009 in which Newcastle were relegated for the first time in 15 years, Owen decided not to renew his contract and not to begin to talk to other clubs until his contract ended. To Owens surprise Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson showed interested in signing him as stated in an interview with BBC Owen said United's interest in him came as a surprise, adding: "I had just begun to talk to other clubs when out of the blue Sir Alex phoned me on Wednesday afternoon, invited me to have breakfast with him next morning during which he told me that he wanted to sign me. I agreed without a moment's thought. This is a fantastic opportunity for me and I intend to seize it with both hands.” Owen was handed the iconic number 7, previously worn by many Manchester United legends including Cristiano Ronaldo, George Best an Eric Cantona. Owen had a quiet first season scoring 9 goals in 31 games in all competitions. After 3 years with Manchester, Owen announced that Manchester would not offer him a new deal.
Source:http://www.zimbio.com/photos/Michael+Owen/Manchester+United+v+CSKA+Moscow+UEFA+Champions/-FYusO6sos3
On 4 September 2012, Owen Joined Stoke City on a one-year contract. After struggling with a day-to-day hamstring injury, he announced in March 2013 that he would retire at the end of the season. He made 8 appearances from the bench. At the end of the season, Owen retired and his incredible career ended. Owen scored 163 league goals in 362 games and scored 40 goals for England in 89 appearances.
Source:http://www.zimbio.com/photos/Michael+Owen/Stoke+City+v+Manchester+City+Premier+League/CZvyrB5GvzS
Post by: Guðjón
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