Michael Owen Biography

Michael Owen, born on 14 December 1979 in Chester, is an English former professional football player. A tricky, agile and goal-scoring striker, he was considered one of the best footballers in the world in the second half of the 1990s and early 2000s, and the "wonder boy" of English football due to his early successes in his teens. As early as 1998, he was voted Sportsman of the Year in Great Britain and three years later was named Europe's Footballer of the Year.

He experienced his best footballing period with

until 2004, before briefly moving to

(until 2005) and later to

(until 2009),

(until 2012) and

(until 2013). He won the

, the League Cup and the UEFA Cup with Liverpool in 2001, and the

top scorer in 1998 and 1999. He also won the League Cup again in 2003. He played in three World Cups (1998, 2002, and 2006) and two European Championships (2000, 2004) with the England national team.

From the mid-2000s onwards, he was frequently set back by serious injuries, including a fractured metatarsal at the end of December 2005 and a torn cruciate ligament during the 2006

finals in Germany. His last major success was winning the English Premier League with Manchester United in 2011.

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All You Need to Know About Michael Owen Biography

In 2004 Michael Owen was included in the FIFA 100, a list of the 125 greatest living footballers selected by Pelé for FIFA's centenary celebrations.

Michael Owen Information

Now that we know him much better, it is time for us to share some general information about him in this section of

Michael Owen biography

such as

Michael Owen nationality

.

Michael Owen Bio

• Full Name: Michael James Owen

• Nickname: Wonder Boy

• Profession: Professional Footballer

Michael Owen Physical Stats

• Weight: 70 Kg

• Height: 1.73 m

• Eye Color: Brown

• Hair Color: Light Brown

Michael Owen Football Information

• Position: Striker

• Jersey Number: 10

• Professional Debut: 1996

Michael Owen Date of Birth and Personal Info

• Date of Birth: 14 December 1979

• Birth Place: Chester, England

• Zodiac Sign: Sagittarius

• Nationality: English

Now stay tuned in this section of

Michael Owen biography

as we are going to share some more information about

Michael Owen childhood

.

Michael Owen Early Life

Michael Owen was born in Chester and is the son of Terry, who played for Chester City Football Club in the 1970s. In the beginning, Michael played for the local club. In school, he scored 73 times, surpassing the record of former Liverpool striker Ian Rush by one. As a precocious talent, he left the family home in the early 1990s to join English Clairefontaine's Lilleshall. Michael continued his rapid progress and earned a number of caps and goals in youth national teams.

During his time at Lilleshall, Owen also featured for Liverpool FC's youth team in the 1995/96 season. As a 16-year-old in a team of mostly 18-year-olds, he scored three goals in each of the FA Youth Cup quarter-finals against Manchester United (the winner coming in injury time) and the semi-final first leg against Crystal Palace (4-2), as well as two more goals in the second leg after a 3-1 extra-time draw in normal time.

In the final against

, who had future stars like Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard in their ranks and had not lost 24 games in a row, Owen was absent in the first game (2-0) due to an assignment at the European Under-16 Championship in Austria against Turkey. In the second leg, he scored the eleventh goal in five cup games to equalise the score at 1-1 (final score: 2-1), which paved the way for Liverpool's first-ever FA Youth Cup success.

On the 14th December 1996, on his seventeenth birthday, Michael Evans Roy, general manager of the Mersey club, arrived at the Owen's with an offer of a six-year professional contract and a red jersey bearing his name. Now stay tuned in this section of

Michael Owen biography

as we are going to share some more information about his Liverpool career.

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Michael Owen Profile

He signed his first professional contract on his 17th birthday and was immediately part of head coach Roy Evans' squad. Owen played his first competitive game on 6 May 1997 against

, coming on as a 57th-minute substitute for Patrik Berger at 2-0 down and scoring the equaliser 17 minutes later. He made his debut for the Reds five days later against

(1-1). This was followed by his sporting breakthrough in the 1997/98 season when Owen advanced to become the "shooting star" of English football and ultimately found his way into the England senior national team.

While Evans had wanted to integrate him gently into the team, the injury of Robbie Fowler meant that things took their course sooner than expected. His pace, goalscoring prowess and high tempo (especially in one-on-one situations in the opposition penalty area) quickly earned him legendary status at Liverpool, with comparisons to Ian Rush or Robbie Fowler standing up to scrutiny. He won the Premier League goalscoring crown with 18 league goals (along with Dion Dublin and Chris Sutton) and was named the PFA's Best Young Professional and PFA Team of the Year.

After his strong showing at the 1998 World Cup in France, concerns were high for his second season in 1998/99 due to the pressure he would be under. These were quickly proved wrong, however, with a hat-trick in the third game against Newcastle United and his commitment and running remained at a high level. Though Liverpool's season ended in a disappointing seventh place overall, Owen matched his league haul from the previous year under new manager Gérard Houllier, becoming the Premier League's top scorer for the second year running (he then shared the title with Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Dwight Yorke).

A ruptured muscle fibre from the game on 12 April 1999 against

caused a five-month compulsory break and although Owen returned to a double-digit goal tally in the 1999/2000 season, the number of critical voices also increased for the first time, warning of an overload and calling for sufficient recovery times after injuries for Owen.

The 2000/01 season was the most successful year for Owen at Liverpool. That season, which ultimately saw Owen named European Footballer of the Year, began brilliantly with seven goals in five games before injuries (first a head injury, later a back injury and then another thigh injury) meant that he was no longer considered an unqualified striker. Besides Emile Heskey, who was very fit at the time, he often competed with Robbie Fowler for the position of the second striker. His two goals in the 2-0 away win over

in the UEFA Cup eighth-final first leg in mid-February 2001 were the initial signs of a return to form.

In the closing stages, he was back to the good form of the start of the season and his performance in the FA Cup final in particular left a lasting impression. Against

, the game was more or less one-sided for Arsenal and Owen was also "off the mark" for 80 minutes before turning a 0:1 into a 2:1 in the last seven minutes. He set up two goals four days later in the UEFA Cup final against Deportivo Alavés, which together with the League Cup he had already won at the end of February 2001 made it his third trophy in one year.

During the two following years up to the end of the 2002/03 season, Owen achieved the best annual results of his career with 19 league goals in each year. Although he was no longer the top Premier League scorer, he played a key role in the team's runners-up finish in 2001 - the best EPL finish of his time at Liverpool. He also scored his 100th competitive goal for the Reds in a 1-1 draw with West Ham United shortly after his 22nd birthday. He played a key role in the team's return to the League Cup on 2 March 2003.

Contrary to the title he won two years earlier, he was in the starting eleven in the final and scored the decisive goal to make it 2-0 against Manchester United shortly before the final whistle. This was Owen's last season with Liverpool in 2003/04, which was again marked by a series of goals and injuries. In the early stages, Owen scored eight goals in five league games, before struggling with injuries, in particular at the turn of the year, which contributed to a goal drought. In the summer of 2004, Owen left Liverpool. He played a total of 297 competitive games for the club, scoring 158 goals.

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Real Madrid

He signed for Real Madrid in 2004 for around 12 million euros. He was introduced in a quick-fire move, wearing the Real Madrid number 11 shirt. Owen often started on the bench, which drew criticism from fans and the press for being out of form.

In October 2004, he returned to the England national team. He scored his first goal in the next game for Real Madrid, against Dynamo Kyiv in the

, a game they would win thanks to Owen. A few days later, he scored his first La Liga goal in a 1-0 win over

.

Owen continued to score, netting five goals in seven consecutive games. Although he had a slow start to his career in Madrid, Owen had a good goal-scoring record, coming on as a substitute in most games having to share the attacking role with Ronaldo, Raúl, Zinedine Zidane, Figo and even Morientes, who had just returned from his loan spell at Monaco. During that season, although he showed that he was a quality striker, his lack of consistency, his injuries and poor response from the club, contributed to overshadowing his figure enormously.

Although Owen started from the bench, with the arrival of Vanderlei Luxemburgo, Brazilian coach, Owen began to enjoy more regular appearances in place of Luis Figo, starting in the second clásico of the season at the Santiago Bernabeu, scoring Real Madrid's fourth goal in a beautifully executed fashion.

At the end of the season, despite receiving a standing ovation from the Santiago Bernabeu stadium during the match between Real Madrid and MLS Select, where they were playing for the Santiago Bernabeu Trophy, and due to the arrival of new strikers, he decided to return to England. His life was not easy in Madrid, as he was unable to find a home quickly and had to stay in a hotel for a long period of time, where his family wanted to return home. His return was probably influenced by injuries or lack of continuity. This time he joined Newcastle United for 24 million euros.

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Newcastle United

In 2005, Owen finally signed a four-year contract to play for Newcastle on 31 August, dismissing initial rumors that he would return to Liverpool. 20,000 fans were present at St James' Park, Newcastle's stadium, for Owen's official introduction as a Newcastle player. Owen scored his first goal for the club in his second match, the second goal of a 3-0 win over Blackburn on 18 September - Newcastle's first win of the season. On December 17, Owen scored his first hat-trick for his new team in a 4-2 win against West Ham, and it was a perfect hat trick, as he scored with his left foot, his right foot and with his head.

Michael Owen, however, had experienced many serious injuries since arriving at Newcastle. He broke his metatarsal bone on December 31, 2005, in a match against Tottenham. He successfully underwent surgery to put a pin in the bone to help speed up the recovery process. It was anticipated that he would be ready by the end of March, but his recovery process did not go as expected and on 24 March, Michael underwent a second operation.

Owen then prepared to be ready by the final weeks of the season with Newcastle. His return to the pitch finally came against Birmingham on 29 April, as he came off the bench in the 62nd minute. Following the match, Owen commented that he was "not 100% happy" with his foot. He underwent an X-ray and was unavailable for Newcastle's final match of the season.

This was followed by a ligament injury to his right knee, which occurred in the first minute of the group stage match against Sweden at the 2006 World Cup, which would see Owen out of action for approximately a year. This injury sparked a "club or country" dispute between Newcastle and the England national team. As the Football Association's (FA) insurance policy would not fully reimburse Newcastle for Owen's £100K-plus per week salary, or the cost of employing some other player to cover his injury, club manager Freddy Shepherd arranged for financial compensation from the FA.

His injury also saw the clock tick down to his termination clause; it seemed likely that Owen would leave Newcastle in the near future. But rumors have circulated on the internet that Owen may return to action in early April. Now stay tuned in this section of Michael Owen biography as we are going to share some more information about Man United career.

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Manchester United

He joined Manchester United on 3 July 2009 on a two-year contract. Michael Owen's purchase was at first unwelcome by Manchester fans, who flooded the club's website for a day with messages not exactly welcoming a player who has never hidden his sympathies for the hated Liverpool. On the contrary for Sir Alex Ferguson, who was confident that he had found the right player to stand alongside Wayne Rooney.

He was assigned the number 7 shirt, vacated by Cristiano Ronaldo after the Portuguese ace's transfer to Real Madrid. His United debut came in a pre-season friendly against the Malaysian XI, where he immediately made his mark by scoring a goal; this good performance was followed by 3 goals in other friendlies. He made his League Cup debut on 16 August as a substitute against Birmingham City. Owen scored his first Premier League goal in his new team's uniform on 22 August against Wigan Athletic, scoring the 4th goal in their great 5-0 victory. Three weeks later he starred again, scoring the winning goal in the 96th minute in the derby against Manchester City.

Michael scored his first Champions League goal in a Red Devils shirt on 3 November, in the 3-3 draw against CSKA Moscow. On 8 December, he was a key player in the Wolfsburg - Manchester United match, ending 1-3 thanks to a hat-trick, his first since 2005.

After scoring the equalizer in the Carling Cup final between Manchester United and Aston Villa (later won by the Red Devils 2-1) on 28 February 2010, he injured his hamstring just before half-time and was replaced by Wayne Rooney. An ultrasound scan on 5 March confirmed a tear that would require an operation. As a result, Owen would miss the remainder of the season, ruining any remaining hopes of participating in the 2010 World Cup.

His contract was extended for a further year on 1 June 2011 after he reached the Champions League final (which they lost to Barcelona).

He announced on 17 May 2012 on his Twitter profile that he would not extend his expiring contract with Manchester United. Therefore, in June of the same year, as expected, he remains untied. Overall, he played 50 games for the Red Devils, scoring 17 goals (5 in the Premier League, 4 in the Champions League, 1 in the FA Cup and 7 in the Carling Cup) and winning one EPL, one Carling Cup win and two Community Shields to his record.

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Stoke City

Owen signed for Stoke City as a free agent on 4 September 2012, signing with the club on a one-year deal, while awaiting approval from the English Premier League due to the deal being concluded after the transfer window had closed. Owen was handed the number 10 shirt previously worn by Ricardo Fuller and played his debut in a 1-1 draw against Manchester City on 15 September 2012. The career of Owen with Stoke was hampered by a thigh injury which saw him play just 8 league games.

Owen scored his first goal for them on 19 January 2013 in a 3-1 defeat to Swansea City, his first goal since 25 October 2011. He became the seventh player to reach 150 EPL goals in doing so. He announced on 19 March 2013 that he would retire from professional football at the end of the current season. His last game was played as a substitute on 19 May against Southampton, ending his final season with 9 appearances and scoring just one goal, receiving a standing ovation from the crowd.

England National Team

Having been called up by Glenn Hoodle as the 23rd man to observe in a match against Cameroon, Michael Owen played his first full international match against Chile at Wembley on February 11, 1998. Aged 18 years and 59 days, Owen became the youngest England international player of the century, beating Duncan Edwards by 124 days, and the fourth youngest in the history of the national team.

At the 1998 World Cup, Owen played in the Round of 16 against Argentina, where he made a name for himself as a star player by scoring a historic goal in the Round of 16. His speed and goalscoring skills made the world of football talk about him. During the 2002 World Cup qualifiers in Munich in 2001, England defeated Germany 5 to 1, where he scored a hat-trick.

Recovering from injury at the 2006 World Cup, he was injured again in the first round match against Sweden on 20 June 2006, in the very first minute of play without interference from any other player. This time, however, the injury was even more serious as he ruptured his knee ligaments. The injury caused a dispute between his club and the English Football Association, with Newcastle demanding financial compensation commensurate with the severity of the injury.

Upon his return to the Newcastle first team, he returned to the national team as a first-team regular, a sign of the immense confidence that English coach Steve McClaren had in him. On his international comeback in a Euro 2008 qualifying match against Israel, he scored a goal just before scoring a brace a few days later against Russia. He was largely responsible for England's comeback to second place in the qualifiers, which was not very successful. However, in the next match against Austria, he was injured again.

He got injured in the final of the 2010 Carling Cup and was unavailable until the end of the season, losing all hope of participating in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. He has scored 40 goals in 89 matches for England. Now stay tuned in this section of Michael Owen biography as we are going to share some more information about his playing style.

Style of Play

A very skillful and athletically gifted footballer, his strong points was precision, power, speed and great vision, as well as an excellent instinct for goal. Throughout his career, he suffered from numerous injuries, which affected his performance at clubs and with the England national team.

Reception

Many football critics and fans consider Michael Owen amongst the best strikers in the history of English football and if it was not for his numerous injuries that affected his career, he would have achieved much more in football.

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Goal Celebration

As a striker, Michael Owen has scored many goals during his career. Amongst many goal celebrations that he had through all these years, his hand-rubbing goal celebration where he stood in the pitch and rubbed his hands together. He did this goal celebration in the match against Newcastle United just after the 1998 World Cup in France.

Michael Owen outside Football

Michael Owen is so passionate about Golf and he used to play it since he was a kid. His love for horses is widely known and he owns many racehorses. He has invested extensively in his love for horse racing after retiring from playing football at Stoke City, he established a stable in Cheshire that includes 90 horses educated by Tom Dascombe.

Michael Owen Personal Life

In this section of Michael Owen biography, we will take a deeper look into his personal life and share some stories of

Michael Owen life story

and

Michael Owen religion

.

Family, Children and Relationships

Michael Owen was born as a son to professional football player Terry Owen, who played for Everton. The Owen family is large, he has two brothers, Terry and Andrew, and two sisters, Karen and Leslie. Owen is married to his childhood friend Louise Bonsall, whom he met at school.

He has four children with her: daughter Gemma Rose, born 1 May 2003, son James Michael, born 6 February 2006, daughter Emily May, born 29 October 2007 and daughter Jessica, born 26 February 2010. Michael Owen is a Christian.

Philanthropy

Michael Owen always participates in charity events whether it be football matches or horse riding events. He has also supported many charity foundations throughout his career.

Legal Issues

Right now there are no reports of any legal issues or disputes to Michael Owen’s name on the media.

Michael Owen Career Statistics

In this section of Michael Owen biography, we want to take a look at his career stats as a club and international player.

Club

In a rather short footballing career between 1996 and 2013, Michael Owen has played a total of 482 matches in all competitions and scored 222 goals. If it wasn’t for his numerous injuries he could’ve been able to play and score much more goals during his career.

International

In 10 years of playing with the England national team, Michael Owen has played a total of 89 matches with Three Lions, scoring 40 goals. His best year was 2005 when he scored 7 goals in 9 matches.

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Michael Owen Honors

Michael Owen has won all his club titles and awards with Liverpool and Manchester United including FA Cup, Football League Cup, Premier League and UEFA Cup, among others. He has no awards at the international level.

His most notable individual titles and awards include Ballon d'Or, World Soccer World Player of the Year, Premier League Golden Boot and many others.

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