Michael Owen on being a Premier League hero at 18, his most memorable moment and how he became an expert finisher

Owen talks exclusively to Miguel Delaney as The Independent looks back at 25 years of the league

Owen admits his career peaked at 21 (Getty)

It was one of the Premier League’s most familiar sights just as it was truly transforming into the world’s most watched domestic competition, and also helped create one of its first homegrown world stars - but it came from a very distinctive thought process in what ended up a very distinctive career.

That sight was Michael Owen bearing down on goal before so cleanly and efficiently wrapping it around a goalkeeper and into the corner.

He did it so often in 1997-98 that he won the English Golden Boot, and did it so often in 2000-01 that he won the Ballon D’Or. Owen now freely admits that latter season represented “the peak” of his career and the fact he was just 21 and still played for another 12 fairly injury-afflicted years is perhaps one reason why he doesn’t get due recognition in all the celebrations for the Premier League’s 25th anniversary.

Another fact however is that he is one of those very rare players in the competition’s history who was a teenage revelation, who riveted the league with the type of exhilarating displays that only youth can bring, and one of just two who was officially crowned Europe’s best when in the Premier League.

As Owen explains when talking to The Independent about that trademark finish, however, it wasn’t just the product of youth or instinct or the kind of almost unthinking talent that comes with players of that potential. It was actually from a lot of thought, and calculation - as well as an abhorrence of one skill some other strikers adore.

“I hated going around a goalkeeper when I was a kid,” Owen reveals. “My dad used to say ‘try to beat the goalkeeper’, so I tried it and tried it and tried it, and it meant I scored six goals instead of seven in a game, and it would kill me, like ‘I’m never trying it again’. I then perfected a finish whereby I would wrap it, because you can feed it outside the near post and in. I’d never pull it into there because you’re going too close to the keeper, or I would dink the keeper, and I would always take my touch about a foot further than the goalkeeper wanted to take it. Then he would think ‘I can get that’, but then I had them diving at my feet and then I could dink them.”

Something else Owen admits is that he greatly disliked getting involved in any build-up play and only did so to a limited degree, but that was because he so consciously wanted to save his sharpness for any opportunities, and he is clearly someone who still thinks about the very art of scoring and striking so much.

“When you’re through on goal, most people just think ‘oh you just run, run, run and then oh right you finish’. You’ve got to concentrate on what you do and, if you’ve got a finish, you’re in control of the ball and the situation. So, if I motion to run one way, the goalkeeper has to react.”

And it was too late.

The elaboration illustrates just how much Owen runs the very skill of finishing through his head, and just why he so illuminated the world with how deadly he was when young, but then he also feels what’s in a players head is really what elevates him. The former Liverpool star is asked why he was ready for the Premier League at just 17 when so many others weren’t, despite what he admits was “an immature body”, and he puts it down to “just mentality”.

Owen's favourite season was when Liverpool won a treble of knockout competitions (Getty)

“Most people hope they’re going to do it, I went into big games knowing I was going to score.

“It’s just the mentality, just purely how you believe in yourself. There were loads of players better than me, I would say. When I was at my peak, I won the Ballon D’Or, so one year I was voted the best player in the world, and I would say even in that year, technically there were still 20 players, 30 players in the world better than me but I don’t think there was anyone who was mentally stronger than me or believed… and that takes you so far.

“I could name other players, someone like [Jamie] Carragher, someone like [Alan] Shearer, they got to the absolute top of their game and they weren’t [necessarily the best equipped]… Shearer wasn’t the fastest player, he wasn’t the tallest player, he didn’t have a trick, but he was just so harder and stronger and had more belief than anyone and just knew he was the best.

“Carragher was the same. Carragher was small as centre-halves go, he wasn’t quick, pacey but not fast. He had loads of attributes but he wasn’t a Rolls Royce like Rio Ferdinand. But I tell you what, I bet he thought he was 10 times better than him. Whether you are or you’re not, it doesn’t matter. If you believe it… and there’s loads of examples of players, they will just do it. Then you get the few examples of someone who’s just a genius of a player, and they think like that. Then you get [Leo] Messi, and then you get [Cristiano] Ronaldo. It’s all mentality.”

It’s also interesting that, when asked to pick out some of his most memorable Premier League moments, Owen instantly goes to what was going through his head in one of the most infamous moments for one of his clubs: Manchester United losing the title to Manchester City in 2011-12. His side had done their part of beating Sunderland 1-0, but needed QPR to avoid defeat at the Etihad when 2-1 up with just two minutes left.

“I was stood on the side of the pitch at Sunderland, and thinking I’d just won my second league medal, and then had it taken away. It was funny because word got around that City had scored, and we’re like, ‘oh no, we’ve to hang on for another couple of minutes now because they needed two goals, and then… literally 30 seconds later, City have scored, and we said ‘yeah we know that, has the ref blown the whistle and he goes ‘no, they’ve scored again’, and we all just went… oh my word. For the general public, it must have been unbelievable for them.”

Owen thought he had won a second Premier League title only for City to win it with two last-minute goals (Getty)

The season he actually enjoyed the most, though, was 2000-01 - when Liverpool finished second in the league but first in every knock-out competition they entered: a treble of League Cup, FA Cup and Uefa Cup.

“My first two years, I won the Golden Boot, when I was at my best. Slippery slope after that! No, my best season was when we won the five trophies in one calendar year, that was special, because we were winning everything. That would have been the best one, we qualified for the Champions League as well, and winning the Ballon D’Or and everything. It was pretty special that year, it was just a whole season of triumph.”

Owen also believes the game was even more difficult for players like him then, in what he thinks is one of the biggest differences in the Premier League from his start to now.

“I think we’ve gone more European now, I know there are a couple of rules that are still very English and not anywhere else, the high boot, showing your studs and things you still get away with it, but in general we’re protecting our best players now and if you’re a good player you’re allowed to be a good player, whereas when I was coming through, and certainly early on so I’m not complaining, you could still kick your centre-forwards, and give them a good reminder in the first five minutes, and get away with it, and the ref wouldn’t protect the best players.

“I think we’re going more continental here, the game in general is trying to promote good players and not players who would kick their way through a game, and it’s got to be the right way I suppose, but it does mean stop-start, lots of free-kicks all the time, you have to promote skill.”

Owen also showed how to maximise skill, even if it isn’t always given the full appreciation it should be.