Michael Owen: Legend or villain?

"Michael Owen latches on to a through ball. He is too quick for the defender. He is through on goal. It's Owen...it's a goal!"

By Daniel Teo

For those who had the privilege of watching Owen terrorise defences during his heydays for Liverpool and England, hearing these words was commonplace.

At full flight, Owen was quite literally uncatchable, putting on the after-burners and scorching away from his markers time and again. The sight of a 19-year-old Owen leaving the Argentina defence trailing his wake to score a wonder goal remains one of the abiding images of the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

Fast forward 13 years later and the diminutive striker is a shadow of his former self, plagued by injuries and contenting himself with Cup scraps on the few matchdays when he's actually fit. Despite having suffered from a dodgy hamstring throughout his career though, his journey has seen him play for some of the biggest clubs in world football - Liverpool, Real Madrid, Newcastle and finally the controversial switch to Manchester United.

And wherever he has gone, the goals have followed. The numbers don't lie. The 31-year-old remains the Premier League's fifth all-time goalscorer with 149 goals and England's fourth leading scorer of all time, with 40 strikes.

Touted as one of the best finishers England have ever produced, Owen seemed destined for stardom from an early age.

Footballing prodigy

When Terry Owen gave his son his first football, he knew right away young Michael was different. After watching him kick the ball around at home, he turned to his wife saying:"Jeanette, I think we've got something special here."

The rest, as they say, is history.

His goalscoring prowess first came to light at a tender age of seven, where he scored an incredible 34 goals in 24 starts in his first season for Mold Alexandra School Under-10s team.

Owen's first ever coach Howard Roberts reminisced about one of his earliest performances, recalling to football magazine Four Four Two: "In one match, he scored nine goals. And that was in the first 20 minutes"

It was his exploits at Deeside Primary that stunned onlookers. In two seasons in Deeside's Under-11s team, Owen scored 97 goals, smashing the schoolboy record held by a certain Ian Rush by 20 goals. He would continue to follow in the Anfield legend's footsteps, signing for Liverpool when he was merely 16 and making his first team debut at 18.

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