It has been announced this morning that Michael Owen will retire from playing football at the end of this season. Fundamentally, it is an acceptance of the inevitable. Stoke City were unlikely to renew his contract for next season and no other Premier League club wants him any more. He is only 33 years old and it all sounds like a sad end to his career. But not so. Judging by what he has written on his website, this is a considered decision and, I think, the right one. But we should not forget that Michael Owen is one of the greatest footballers to play for England since the Second World War.
Born in Chester, Michael Owen played for Liverpool for six years and in 2001 helped them to win the League Cup, FA Cup and Uefa Cup, ending a six-year trophy drought. In total, Owen scored 158 goals in 297 appearances for the Merseyside club before moving to Real Madrid for £8m in 2004, where he was part of the "Galacticos", including Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo, Roberto Carlos and Raul.
Despite scoring 14 goals in 40 games, it seems that he was less than happy here and returned to England one year later to play for Newcastle United — and by now he was worth £16 m. But it was at Newcastle that he became injury prone and he never again achieved the success of his days at Liverpool. Like many great operatic tenors, great football strikers can be very delicate performers and fabulous athleticism in youth can lead to damage in mi-career and a long decline.
During four years at Newcastle, he made only 79 appearances but still managed to score 30 goals. Newcastle were relegated from the Premier Leagu in 2009 and Michael Owens left on a free transfer to play for Manchester United. His appearances for his new club were infrequent but when he did play he often impressed. Nevertheless his career was again blighted by injuries and he moved to Stoke City two years ago.
But in all the glowing performances when he was at his best, few will compare with that marvelous day of September 1st 2001 when he scored a hat-trick in England's rout of Germany 5 - 1 in Munich. A football match that we can still remember as thought it were yesterday. See picture above of him scoring goal number 3
I don't know what he intends to do with the the rest of his life — perhaps he will go horse racing. But, whatever, I wish him the very best
#
No comments:
Post a Comment