Michael Owen

2000–2002: Ballon d'Or and treble

Owen helped Liverpool to a treble in 2000–01, as the team won the League Cup, FA Cup and UEFA Cup to end a six-year trophy drought. Owen was thus the recipient of the Ballon d'Or in recognition of his performances that season. He became the most recent English winner of the European Footballer of the Year award, and the first Englishman to win the award since Kevin Keegan in 1979. Owen scored both of Liverpool's goals in their triumph over Arsenal in the 2001 FA Cup Final as they came back from 1–0 down to win 2–1.

Liverpool and Owen challenged for the league championship during the 2001–02 season. The team eventually finished runners-up to Arsenal, with Owen playing a key part in the campaign. On 29 December 2001, Owen scored his 100th goal for Liverpool during the season against West Ham United. He also led them to success in the Charity Shield and the UEFA Super Cup during the start of the season in 2001. Liverpool thus became the first English team to win five trophies in one calendar year. Owen signed a four-year contract worth £70,000-a-week with Liverpool during the season, making him one of the highest earners in the English Premiership. Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez started as early as in March 2002 to pursue Owen. Pérez declared his intentions to make Owen the next Galáctico, stating that "the best players must play for Real Madrid". Liverpool manager Gérard Houllier laughed off any apparent interest, saying, "They might be able to afford Ronaldo but they cannot afford Michael Owen. For that kind of money they could only buy his left foot but he is not going anywhere. Michael is Liverpool through and through, and he is staying with me."

2002–2004: Maintained performances and transfer rumours

Owen continued with strong performances in the 2002–03 season which saw Liverpool top the league table and remain unbeaten for several months. However, a run of disastrous results starting from November and culminating in January saw the team bow out of the title race. Chelsea pipped Liverpool to the fourth and final Champions League spot on the final day of the season. Owen was also controversially overlooked for the PFA Player of the Year award during the season. He had continued establishing personal records with Liverpool and had scored his 100th Premier League goal on 26 April against West Bromwich Albion. Success in the League Cup also meant that Liverpool had ended up with a trophy for a third consecutive season. Owen had scored in the League Cup Final against Manchester United to clinch the trophy for Liverpool. However, Liverpool's failure to qualify for the Champions League led to speculation about Owen's long-term future. Transfer speculation had continued linking him to Real Madrid and Barcelona. Owen was quoted as saying, "I really have to be playing in the Champions League and that is something [Liverpool] have to remedy." Owen would later refute the quote, stating, "Some of the words I never even said and the rest were taken completely out of context." Houllier moved to re-shape the Liverpool squad in 2003 to reassure Owen. He stated, "We want to win the title. This is our vision at Liverpool—and we want to win it with Michael in our team. Michael is a genuine world-class player. He has had a great season and I think he will be even better next season." Bolton Wanderers manager Sam Allardyce was quoted as saying, "Stop Michael Owen scoring and you are 50 per cent towards getting a result at Anfield", while Owen had admitted to being frustrated at the lack of support play from his teammates.

After a shaky start to the 2003–04 season, Liverpool emerged as title contenders once more, with Owen leading the charge. Owen, however, would suffer an ankle injury while playing against Arsenal on 3 October and consequently went through "three months of injury nightmare". Owen only played intermittently over the following months, suffering from niggling ankle and hamstring injuries, while Liverpool's season fell apart. After a goal drought lasting nine games and three months, Owen returned to fitness and scoring form with a goal against Manchester City on 11 February. Owen helped reignite Liverpool's hunt for fourth spot, scoring his 150th goal for Liverpool in the subsequent match against Portsmouth on 15 February, and although suffering from further injuries, ultimately led Liverpool to the fourth and final Champions League spot. Following Gérard Houllier's sacking as Liverpool manager, speculation about Owen's departure from the club began. During the first few Champions League games at the start of the 2004–05 season, Owen sat on the bench to avoid being cup-tied for the Champions League, something that would have meant he would be unable to play in European competitions for any other club that season. Since 1998, Owen had been Liverpool's top scorer every season until he left the club. Real Madrid signed him for a fee of £8 million on 13 August 2004, with midfielder Antonio Núñez moving in the other direction as a make-weight.

Real Madrid

Following their successful bid, on 14 August 2004, Real Madrid officially presented Owen with the number 11 shirt. Owen joined the club during its Galácticos era, and played alongside the "big four" of preceding star signings, namely Luís Figo, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo, and David Beckham, as well as prominent team players from the pre-Galácticos era; Raúl, Roberto Carlos, and Iker Casillas. He also became the second Liverpool player to join Real Madrid in five years after Steve McManaman, who played for the club from 1999 to 2003.

Owen was regarded as having a slow start to his Madrid career, often being confined to the bench. Owen sometimes drew criticism from fans and the Spanish press for his lack of form. A successful return to action with the England squad in October 2004 seemed to revive his morale however, and in the first following match, he scored his first goal for the club, the winner in a 1–0 Champions League victory over Dynamo Kyiv. A few days later, he scored his first La Liga goal in a 1–0 victory over Valencia. The scoring spree continued, as he found the back of the net in three of the next four matches to make it five goals in seven matches. On 10 April 2005, Owen scored Real Madrid's fourth goal in a 4–2 El Clásico win over Barcelona at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium. Owen ended the 2004–05 season with 13 goals in La Liga, with the season's highest ratio of goals scored to number of minutes played. Following Madrid's signing of two high-profile Brazilian forwards, Robinho and Júlio Baptista, in the summer of 2005, the speculation arose that Owen would return to the Premier League. During his time at Real Madrid, Owen scored 16 goals from 45 games, 26 of which were starts.

Newcastle United

2005–2007: Club record transfer and injuries

On 24 August 2005, Newcastle United announced that they had agreed to a club record fee of £16.8 million to obtain Owen, although they still had to negotiate with the player's advisers. Liverpool and local rivals Everton entered the fray, but were unwilling to match Madrid's asking price. As the 2006 World Cup was less than a year away, Owen wanted to get more playing time to secure his position as the first-choice striker in the England squad and joined Newcastle amid rumours that he had inserted an escape clause valued at £12 million. On 31 August 2005, Owen signed a four-year contract to play for Newcastle, despite initial press speculation that he would rather have returned to Liverpool. Some 20,000 fans were present at Newcastle's home ground of St James' Park for Owen's official unveiling as a Newcastle player. Several days after signing, he suffered a thigh-injury in pre-season, which ruled him out for the start of the 2005–06 season. He scored his first goal for the club on his second appearance, the second goal in a 3–0 away win at Blackburn Rovers on 18 September, Newcastle's first win of the season. Owen scored his first hat-trick for Newcastle in the 4–2 away win over West Ham United on 17 December. It was also a "perfect hat trick", with one goal scored with each of his left foot, right foot and head.

On 31 December 2005, Owen broke a metatarsal bone in his foot in a match against Tottenham Hotspur. He underwent surgery to place a pin in the bone, to help speed the healing process. He was expected to be out of action until late March, but the healing process did not go as hoped and on 24 March he underwent a second, minor operation. Owen then stated that he should be fit for the final few weeks of the season with Newcastle. His return to action finally came against Birmingham City on 29 April when he came off the substitutes' bench in the 62nd minute. After the match, Owen stated that he was "not 100% happy" with his foot. He underwent a further X-ray and made himself unavailable for Newcastle's final game of the season. A damaged anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his right knee, sustained in the first minute of the group match against Sweden at the 2006 FIFA World Cup, kept Owen out of regular football for nearly a year, until April 2007. The seriousness of Owen's injury at the World Cup inflamed the so-called "club-versus-country" row in England, centring on the liability of the world governing body FIFA and The Football Association (FA) for the cost of injuries to players incurred while on international duty. Newcastle were aggrieved at the length of time Owen would now be out of action in forthcoming Premier League and Cup competitions as a result of the World Cup injury, particularly as he had been out for the half-season prior to the World Cup. Under the existing insurance arrangements between club and country, FIFA and the FA had been paying £50,000 of Owen's £110,000 weekly wages since he suffered the injury, totalling approximately £2 million for the time he was out of action. By September 2006, Newcastle were threatening to sue the FA for further compensation, for a reported figure of £20 million. The Owen case was a high-profile follow-up to an already ongoing legal claim for compensation from FIFA over an injury incurred by Abdelmajid Oulmers on international duty. Newcastle's compensation claim included the £10 million cost of buying Owen's replacement, Obafemi Martins, £6.2 million towards Owen's salary costs while injured, the possibility of long-term damage to Owen's fitness and ability, the loss of league position and cup competition progress, depreciation of Owen's four-year contract, and the cost of medical treatment for Owen. In February 2007, FIFA made Newcastle a "final offer" of £1 million. By April 2007, Newcastle were threatening to take out an injunction to stop the FA from picking Owen for England games. The club finally reached a compromise settlement figure with FIFA and the FA; FIFA indicated that the settlement was between £6 million and £7 million. The club, stating that Owen's wages had "now been paid in full", stated the overall compensation achieved totalled £10 million. Resulting from the Owen compensation claim, the FA doubled their future insurance coverage of England players to £100,000, and FIFA introduced a compensation fund for injuries sustained at World Cups.

Owen began light training on 12 February 2007, when pictures on the club's official website highlighted Owen running and carrying out minor exercises. He made his comeback from injury on 10 April 2007 in a 4–1 behind-closed-doors friendly against Gretna, scoring after ten minutes and then setting up fellow striker Shola Ameobi before coming off an hour later. Owen then started his first game for Newcastle in over a year, a 1–0 loss against Reading on 30 April 2007. He played the full 90 minutes, having a goal disallowed for offside.

Owen was stretchered off an hour into Newcastle's game with Watford on 13 May 2007, suffering concussion after colliding with teammate Matty Pattison. On 9 May 2007, Newcastle chairman Freddy Shepherd reacted angrily to reports that Owen could move on to another club at the end of the 2006–07 season due to a release clause in his contract. A report in The Times newspaper suggested Owen could be available for less than £10 million and could be a target for the likes of Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal. Despite these reports, Shepherd warned Owen "to show some loyalty" and warned him that "none of the big four clubs want him". In a video posted on YouTube, however, a group of Liverpool fans asked Shepherd if they could re-sign Owen, he responded by saying that he would "carry Owen back to Liverpool" himself. Shepherd also stated his dislike of Owen's agent but praised Owen as a "good lad". This led many to believe that Owen would exercise his right to leave if the £9 million valuation was matched. On 10 June 2007, Owen's new manager at Newcastle, Sam Allardyce, confirmed the existence of the release clause in Owen's contract and said he feared that the club would be powerless to prevent Owen from leaving. On 12 July 2007, however, Owen committed his immediate future to Newcastle, stating, "I believe that these can be good times to be at Newcastle, which is why I am more than happy to be here."

2007–2009: Declined form and injuries

On 17 July 2007, he scored for Newcastle in a pre-season friendly against Hartlepool United. Several days later, Owen picked up a thigh injury in training. Newcastle manager Sam Allardyce said that Owen was likely to miss the start of the forthcoming Premier League season due to the injury which "doesn't look as encouraging as we first thought". Owen made his comeback from injury in a club friendly on 13 August 2007 and declared himself available for Newcastle's next match, against Aston Villa, as well as England's forthcoming international matches. On 29 August 2007, Owen scored his first competitive goal for Newcastle since December 2005 when he scored in the League Cup against Barnsley. Three days later, he scored in the league with a late winner against Wigan Athletic. In late September 2007, after an encouraging start to the season playing for both Newcastle and England, it was reported that he would urgently require an operation for a double hernia and would likely be out of action for at least a month. In his first match back from the hernia operation, he scored a late goal coming off the substitutes bench to clinch victory for Newcastle over Everton. In November 2007, Owen suffered a thigh strain while on international duty, ruling him out for six weeks. This reignited the "club or country" row, with then Newcastle manager Sam Allardyce voicing his disappointment that Owen was risked in a low-key friendly game against Austria. After over three months without a goal, Owen scored the first goal of the second Kevin Keegan era in a 4–1 FA Cup third round replay win over Stoke City on 16 January 2008, although Keegan was only a spectator in the stands for this game. Owen was awarded the captaincy by Keegan on 19 January 2008. He scored his first league goal of 2008 on 3 February. Owen's goal in the 2–0 defeat of Fulham on 22 March 2008, which marked Newcastle's first win under Keegan's second spell as manager, also marked the first time in his Newcastle career that Owen had scored more goals for Newcastle than against them. By 5 April 2008, after his and the team's early season poor form, Owen had scored six goals in the previous six matches, with Newcastle registering four wins and two draws, lifting Newcastle into mid-table after earlier relegation fears. In the final game of the season, Owen scored in a 3–1 loss at Everton, finishing with 11 goals in total, putting him in equal 13th position for Premier League goals for the 2007–08 season.