Owen legacy vast despite dreary finish

 

The retiring Michael Owen is often mocked now, but achieved loads earlier in his career, as Michael Lintorn recalls...

 

Even though it was seemingly timed to exploit a typically slow pre-international news week, Michael Owen's announcement that he will retire this summer received a fairly muted response.

 

The reason is that, for many, Owen has been in a state of semi-retirement for years - if not straight after signing up for an extended stretch in Manchester United's dugout in 2009 then certainly since the derby winner and League Cup Final strike in his first season. Highlights have been scarce since.

 

It is unfortunate though that the closing memories of Owen's career will be four years warming the bench whenever fit enough, first at Old Trafford and this term at Stoke, managing a scarcely believable six Premier League starts in the past four seasons.

 

After all, for the first decade of his senior career he was idolised both for club and country, with it considered a mere formality that he would eventually surpass Bobby Charlton as England's all-time record scorer.

 

The Chester-born goal machine shared the Premier League Golden Boot twice at the end of the 1990s while still only 19 and 20, finding time in between the provide one of the highlights of World Cup 1998 with that goal against Argentina.

 

He would net in the following three international tournaments too en route to a tally of 40 goals in 89 appearances, the best year of his career arriving in 2001.

 

As well as scoring a hat-trick in Germany in the history 5-1 World Cup qualifying win, he was part of the Liverpool side that lifted five trophies, albeit neither the Premier League nor Champions League. He impressed enough to surprisingly claim the coveted Ballon d'Or, the only Englishman to do so since Kevin Keegan in 1979.

 

Rafael Benitez's arrival at Anfield in 2004 signalled the end of Owen's time on Merseyside. He was sold to Real Madrid for a rather cheap £7 million, though it was always going to be a challenge displacing either Ronaldo or Raul, the guy many expected to beat him to that 2001 Ballon d'Or.

 

Still, Owen delivered a solid goal return in his restricted opportunities, raising his stock sufficiently for the Spanish giants to more than double their money in selling him to Newcastle a year down the line.

 

It was around that time that the decline began, a serious injury at the World Cup meaning that he missed the majority of his second season with the Magpies. Fitness problems meant he managed just 58 league starts in four years. He averaged almost a goal every other start but - fleeing on a free after a relegation - his Tyneside time isn't recalled fondly.

 

The decision to join Manchester United and then stay on for 36 months despite being a clear reserve - he believed it was better to be a squad player at a top team than a regular for a comparative non-entity - was criticised yet did allow him to secure a Premier League winner medal.

 

The 33-year-old turned his nose up at talk of dropping into the Championship last summer so, with the writing apparently on the wall at Stoke, has likely ruled that it is better to sign off now after a career spent exclusively as a top-flight striker.

 

Stoke have gone four games without firing from open play, so Owen might get a few more chances to add to his 150 Premier League goals before May. The Potters are 3.7 for a top-half finish.

 

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