Michael James Owen (born 14 December 1979, in Chester, England) is an English football player and current captain of Newcastle United. He previously played for Liverpool (1996–2004) and Real Madrid C.F. (2004–05).
He plays as a striker and has enjoyed a moderately successful and high-profile career at both club and international level and was the Ballon d'Or winner in 2001.
Owen is currently England's fourth highest scorer of all time, scoring his 39th and 40th goal on his 85th cap. He is known for his precise finishing and predatory instincts around goal. Owen was bitten by the "football bug" at a very young age. His father, Terry, was a footballer and had previously played for Everton. In his childhood career he used to kick the ball with his dad and brother. His favourite player was Gary Lineker and he always insisted that he was Gary when he and his dad had a kick about.
Owen is the youth product of Liverpool and when he was playing for Liverpool for 8 seasons he was recognised as one of the best striker in world of football. In his 8 seasons he scored 118 goals in EPL and 158 goals in all competition. As he left to Liverpool, he lost his fame and plagued by injury and he lost the position as the lethal striker. But the age is in his side. He is just 28 yrs old and he have plenty of time to show that he is one of the world's best striker.
Owen spend 5 seasons in the Youth Academy. At the age of 14 he was drawed a lot of attention from Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal and he opted to sign for Liverpool Youth system and he scored hat-trick against Manchester United in FA Youth Cup.
In 2000-2001, Owen became the first English player in the 20 years and the only Liverpool player ever to win the European Footballer of the Year and he was also voted as the World Soccer Player, the only English player to win it. In that season Owen helped Liverpool League Cup, FA Cup and UEFA Cup and 2000-2001 season was the best season for Liverpool in several years. Prior to start the 2001-2002 season Liverpool bagged Charity Shield and UEFA Super Cup, and overall they bagged 5 trophies in that season. In that very year, Owen beats then World's Number 1 Goal Keeper Oliver Khan 3 times in a match in Munich. In the 2001-2002, Owen took Liverpool to second in the EPL.
Since 1998 Owen was Liverpool's leading goal scorer in every season till he left the club. In 2004, he signed for Real Madrid for £8 million. In Madrid he was confined on the bench and drew criticism from fans and Spanish media for his lack of form. In the end he ended 13 goals in La Liga. After a season, Owen had to leave the club to return to English, because Real Madrid had signed Robinho and Julio Baptista.
Newcastle United bought him for £16 million from Santiago Bernabeau. Even Liverpool and Everton were behind him to sign. But both of this clubs couldnt match Madrid's asking price. Owen has been very injury prone in sustaining serious injuries since coming into St James Park. Even Owen broke a metatarsal bone in his foot in a match against Tottenham Hotspur. He underwent surgery to place a pin in the bone, to help speed the healing process. Again he underwent a second, minor, operation. In 2007, once he as forced to leave the Newcastle United and after few circumstance he stayed in St James Park. First 2 seasons for Newcastle, he had just played 14 games. 2007-2008 is the one season where he played 27 games in EPL by scoring 11 goals.
As a dangerous striker, he won only two major cups in his entire career. He won FA Cup and UEFA Cup for Liverpool. But he drew too many fans and made a great fame in the world of football. Injuries are really making him hard to retain the One of The World's Best Striker's. Even in 2001 he won the Ballon d'Or award. If he has not injury prone, then he would have the lethal finisher and grabbed whole number og goals.
Can he drew too much of fans attention in this 2008-2009 season. Will he play most of the matches for Newcastle or injuries will hunt him. Hopefully, i dosent want to see him getting injured. If his fir then i will be counting atleast 15-20 goals this season which will be a good for St James Park fans.
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