D.O.B = 14.12.79
Position = Striker
Height = 1.72
Weight = 67kg
Michael Owen is one of the most famous strikers on the European stage and he won the European Footballer of the Year award for 2001. A product of the Liverpool F.C youth academy he is a one of the England team's key players. After scoring an astonishing 158 goals from 297 games for Liverpool he joined Real Madrid in the summer of 2004 for £10 million.
He takes on defenders with his electric pace and his mesmerising dribbles. He may be small and this does hinder him when trying to get past tall, strong defenders but he possesses a good jump and he heads the ball very well. At 18 he was more of an uncut diamond now he is renowned as one one of the most deadly strikers in Europe. Despite all his talent one has often been left feeling that he would only truly become one of the greats of the beautiful game if he moved abroad to enhance his abilities, now having left for Spain fans of Owen are left with a renewed hope in his abilties and we must wait to see if he flourishes at Real Madrid.
It is commonly asserted that he will eventually beat Sir Bobby Charlton's goalscoring record for England which stands at 49. At the age of 24 Owen is on course to beat this. He has shown he can score goals outside the penalty area along with a natural predatory instinct for goal inside the area. Unforunatley he is often plagued with hamstring injuries and until recently he was England's only world class striker, it is Wayne Rooney now of Manchester United who has stolen some of Owen's thunder. Owen who is still a young player has now joined the most prestigious team in the world, whilst Rooney has recently joined Manchester United Owen will similarly benefit from playing alongst world class players such as Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo, Raul and Roberto Carlos. Unfortunately he did not set the 2002 world cup alight as he did in the 1998 as there was a certain amount of fatigue showing after the busy English Premier League schedule. In Euro 2004 Owen did not manage to score in the group stages and when it looked as if he was finally in form (scoring an excellently taken goal in the second round match against Portugal) England were knocked out on penalties by Portugal. Owen when on form is blistering and seems to score for fun, it has become apparent however that he suffers from dips in form and occassionally has the odd goal drought.
It has been asserted that Owen's lack of consistency may have been a result of his place in the Liverpool first team being a certainty every game thus allowing him to be relax in a 'comfort zone'. His place in the starting lineup is far from a certainty at Real Madrid, with world class strikers competing for places. It will be interesting to see over the coming seasons whether Owen will be cement a place in the Real Madrid side and cement his place as one of the greats of world football.