Michael Owen

From UK Football Wiki

Michael James Owen (born 14 December 1979) is an English football forward who currently plays for and captains English Championship side Newcastle United. He is currently the fourth-highest scorer for the England national team with forty goals. The son of former footballer Terry Owen, he progressed through the Liverpool youth team and scored on his debut in May 1997. In his first full season in the Premier League he finished as joint top scorer. He repeated the feat the following year and was Liverpool's top goal scorer from 1997–2004, in spite of a recurring hamstring injury. His first major club honours came in 2001 when Liverpool won a cup treble of the UEFA Cup, FA Cup and Football League Cup, and Owen was the recipient of the Ballon d'Or that year. Owen moved to Real Madrid for £8 million in mid-2004 but was frequently used as a substitute. In spite of this, he scored 13 goals in La Liga and had the season's highest ratio of goals scored to number of minutes played. He returned to England the following season, joining Newcastle United for £16 million. He had a promising start to the 2005–06 season but injuries largely ruled him out over the next 18 months. After his return he became team captain and was the team's top scorer for the 2007–08 season. Internationally, Owen first played for the senior England team in 1998, becoming England's youngest player and youngest goalscorer at the time. His performance at the 1998 World Cup brought him to national and international prominence and he went on to appear, and score, in Euro 2000, the 2002 World Cup and Euro 2004. He is the only player to ever have scored in four major tournaments for England. He played at the 2006 World Cup but suffered an injury which took him a year to recover from. Occasionally playing as captain, he is England's seventh most-capped player and has scored a national record of 26 competitive goals.

Early life

Born 14 December 1979 in Chester, Cheshire, Michael James Owen was the fourth child of Janette and Terry Owen. His father is a former professional footballer and Owen grew up playing the game with him and his two older brothers. An Everton fan, Owen played for his primary school team in Hawarden, Wales, breaking all local scoring records in his first season. He joined the youth team of Mold Alexandra, playing with an older age-group, and later attended Hawarden High School, where he also played for the school team.

Club career

Liverpool

At age 13, when Owen started attending high school, he became available to sign "School Boy" forms with a club. He held talks with Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal, before he eventually signed for Liverpool, the club that persuaded him to attend the FA's School of Excellence at Lilleshall in Shropshire at age 14. Throughout this time, he studied at Idsall School, Shifnal, Shropshire, and achieved ten GCSEs. Liverpool signed Owen after he graduated from Lilleshall at 16, and joined the club on the Youth Training Scheme. The star of Liverpool's 1996 FA Youth Cup triumph, scoring a hat-trick in the final against Manchester United, Owen scored prolifically as he rose rapidly through the Anfield ranks. After four months, he signed professional forms for the senior team just after his seventeenth birthday on 18 December 1996. He made his debut for Liverpool against Wimbledon in May 1997, coming on as a substitute and scoring a goal.[3] With an injury to Robbie Fowler, he was thrust immediately into action as a first team regular alongside the likes of newcomer Paul Ince and playmaker Steve McManaman in the following 1997–98 season. He scored his first European goal for the club against Celtic in the UEFA Cup and recorded his first professional hat-trick against Grimsby Town in the League Cup. Owen ended that season as a joint top scorer in the Premier League with Blackburn Rovers' Chris Sutton and Coventry City's Dion Dublin, scoring eighteen goals, and was voted the PFA Young Player of the Year by fellow professionals. The 1998–1999 season proved to be another good season for Owen as he scored 23 Goals in 40 games for Liverpool. Despite his form, Liverpool were unable to mount anything like a title challenge and their seventh place finish was not enough to attain even a UEFA Cup place. Owen injured his hamstring in a league game against Leeds United on 12 April, which proved to be a recurring injury and prematurely bought his season to an end. The next season was a frustrating one for Owen as he was out injured for lengthy periods, effects of the injury suffered the previous season but nevertheless managed to score 12 goals and helped Liverpool to qualify for the UEFA Cup. In the run-up to Euro 2000, Owen was still suffering hamstring problems and received treatment from the Bayern Munich doctor, Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt. In the 2000–2001 season, he helped the club to their most successful season in several years. The team won the League Cup, FA Cup and UEFA Cup, with Owen scoring two goals in the last few minutes against Arsenal in the FA Cup final to turn what had appeared to be a 1–0 defeat into a 2–1 victory, the game has since been christened "The Michael Owen Cup Final". Winning the FA Cup and the UEFA Cup allowed Liverpool to play in the Charity Shield and the UEFA Super Cup at the beginning of the 2001–2002 season. Liverpool won both matches with Owen scoring the second goal of the 2–1 win over Manchester United in the Charity Shield and the third goal in the 2001 UEFA Super Cup win over European champions Bayern Munich. Liverpool thus became the first English team to win five trophies in one calendar year. Just a week later, Owen would again beat Bayern goalkeeper Oliver Kahn, as the English international hit a hat-trick in England's 5–1 win over Germany in Munich.[5] At the end of the year, Owen became the first English player in twenty years and the only Liverpool player ever to win the European Footballer of the Year award. He was also voted World Soccer player of the year in 2001; he is the only English player to win the award and was the first Premier League player to do so.[6] He scored his 100th goal for Liverpool on 21 December 2001 against West Ham United. Liverpool finished second in the league in the 2001–2002 season and Owen played a key part in the success, scoring 28 goals. The 2002–2003 season saw Owen on top form again as he hit 28 goals. Liverpool were on top of the table and looked like genuine title contenders for the first time in several years, but a run of bad results saw them eventually finishing fifth in the table. Owen also scored at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff when Liverpool beat Manchester United 2-0 to win the League Cup and scored his 100th Premiership goal against West Bromwich Albion. In an injury-hit 2003–2004 season he still managed to score 19 goals, getting his 150th goal for the club on 15 February 2004 against Portsmouth, but otherwise it was a bleak season for both him and Liverpool. Following Gérard Houllier's sacking as Liverpool manager, speculation about Owen's departure from the club began. During the first few Champions League games at the start of the 2004–2005 season, Owen sat on the bench to avoid being cup-tied for the Champions League, something that would have meant none of the top clubs in Europe would want to sign him. Since 1998 Owen had been Liverpool's top scorer every season until he left the club.[7] Real Madrid signed him for a fee of £8 million on 13 August 2004, with midfielder Antonio Núñez moving in the other direction as a make-weight. Owen was ambitious in wanting to compete in the Champions League on a regular basis, but ironically Liverpool won the Champions League the very season he left Anfield for the Bernabeu.