December 17 – Michael ‘Ballon d’Or’ Owen

IT wasn’t meant to end up like this. Toiling up front alongside Shola Ameobi for a Newcastle team at the wrong end of the table, no doubt enjoying team talks laden with cockney expletives from ‘it’s a’ Joe Kinnear. Once upon a time Michael Owen was big time, but in the last few years his career seems to have mirrored that of Les Dennis.

As the nineties were winding down Owen was the ultimate up-and-coming young player of English football. Glenn Hoddle thought so and Owen announced his arrival to the whole world with that goal against Argentina, aged just 18. The sky was the limit, the world his oyster etc and so on.

Despite a dreaded hamstring injury in 1999 that would force him to change his game and not rely so much on his devastating pace, little Mickey cemented his place as a top striker for Liverpool and England. In 2001 he virtually singlehandedly won the FA Cup for the Reds when he scored two late goals against Arsenal, and he followed that up by notching up a hat-trick in England’s 5-1 demolition of Germany in Munich.

On this day in 2001 his place at world football’s top table was secured when he was awarded the Ballon d’Or by France Football magazine. He was the first Englishman to win the prestigious accolade since Kevin Keegan picked it up two years on the bounce in 1978 and 1979.

With a lack of foresight that would be funny were it not so tragic, Owen said at the time: “It’s great to know that a footballer doesn’t reach the peak of his career before 27 or 28 years old.

“I’m not in a hurry to be that old. I’m still a rookie in the football world. And there are still a lot of good seasons ahead. Being a good player is not enough for me, and it will never be.

“There are still a lot of steps to climb to become the best with Liverpool and with England. I’m still light years away from my best.

“I’m really proud to add my name to a list which features those of Beckenbauer, Cruyff, Rivaldo, Bobby Charlton and Kevin Keegan.”

Michael spent a couple more fruitful years at Anfield before deciding Liverpool were not likely to win the league and moving on to Real Madrid. That was where things started to go wrong. His talents were never truly appreciated at the Bernabeu by either the coaching staff or the fans but despite spending his time mainly as a substitute he still managed a decent return of 18 goals in about 40 games at Real.

He then moved on to Newcastle where his injuries once again curtailed his playing time. Finding himself injured and at a crisis club, he probably thought things couldn’t get any worse, but then Fabio Capello became England manager and suddenly he was no longer guaranteed a place in the team or even the squad. Never mind Michael, you’ll always have Paris.

Have a look at some of his finest goal scoring exploits below and come make sure you take five minutes out of worrying about the armageddon-like state of the economy tomorrow to read our next post.

Last year we told you about a goal-fest from this day in history, and by going here you can buy OTFD: The Book. Nice.