Michael James Owen (born 14 December 1979 in Chester, Cheshire) is an English football player who currently plays for and captains Newcastle United.

Owen has enjoyed a successful and high-profile career at both club and international level and was the Ballon d’Or winner in 2001. Owen is currently England’s fourth highest scorer of all time, scoring his 39th and 40th goal on his 85th cap, and is England’s leading competitive goalscorer with 26 goals. Owen was selected by Pelé as one of the FIFA 125 greatest living players in 2004.

Personal information
Full name : Michael James Owen
Date of birth : 14 December 1979 (1979-12-14) (age 28)
Place of birth : Chester, England
Height : 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) [1]
Playing position : Striker
Club information : Newcastle United F.C.
League : Barclays English Premier League Football Club

Newcastle United Football Club
On 24 August 2005, Newcastle United announced that they had agreed a club record fee of £16 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 loomed in a year, Owen wanted to get more playing time to secure his position as the first choice striker in the English squad and joined Newcastle amidst rumours that he had inserted an escape clause valued at £12 million.[12] On 31 August 2005 Owen finally signed a four-year contract to play for Newcastle United, despite initial press speculation that he would rather have returned to Liverpool.[13]. With the metro system being packed to the rafters with black and white shirts making their way to Central, Monument and Haymarket stations[14], roughly 20,000 fans were present at Newcastle’s home ground of St James’ Park for Owen’s official unveiling as a Newcastle player.[15] 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 on 17 December.[16] It was also a “perfect hat trick”, with one goal scored with each of his left foot, right foot, and head.

Owen has been very injury prone in sustaining serious injuries since joining Newcastle. 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,[17] 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.[18] 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.[19] He underwent a further x-ray and made himself unavailable for Newcastle’s final game of the season.

A damaged anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, sustained in the first minute of the group match against Sweden at the 2006 World Cup, kept Owen out of regular football for nearly a year, until April 2007. Owen’s injury fanned the “club or country” dispute between clubs and the international authorities, as The Football Association’s insurance policy would not fully reimburse Newcastle United for Owen’s salary of over £120,000 a week, or the costs of employing another player to cover for him; Newcastle chairman Freddy Shepherd threatened to sue the FA for compensation.

Owen training with Newcastle in 2007.Owen began light training on 12 February 2007, when pictures on the club’s official website highlighted Owen running and carrying out minor exercises.[20] He made his comeback from injury on 10 April 2007 in a 4–1 behind-closed-doors friendly against Gretna, scoring after 10 minutes and then setting up fellow striker Shola Ameobi before coming off an hour later.[21] Owen then started his first game for Newcastle United in over a year, against Reading on the 30 April 2007 in a game that Newcastle United lost 1–0. He played the full 90 minutes, having a goal disallowed for offside.[22]

Owen was stretchered off an hour into Newcastle’s game with Watford on 13 May 2007, suffering concussion after colliding with team-mate Matty Pattison.[23]

On 9 May 2007, Newcastle’s 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 £10m 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.”[24] However, in a video posted on YouTube, 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.[25] Shepherd also stated his dislike of Owen’s agent but praised Owen as a “good lad”.[26] This led many to believe that Owen would exercise his right to leave if the £9m valuation was matched.[25] On 10 June 2007, Owen’s new manager at Newcastle, Sam Allardyce, confirmed the existence of the release clause in Owen’s contract and admitted he feared that the club would be powerless to prevent Owen from leaving.[27] However on 12 July 2007 Owen committed his immediate future to Newcastle United, stating: “I believe that these can be good times to be at Newcastle, which is why I am more than happy to be here.”[28]

On 17 July 2007, he scored for Newcastle in a pre-season friendly against Hartlepool.[29] Several days later, Owen picked up a thigh injury in training.[30] Newcastle manager Sam Allardyce admitted 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.”[31] 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.[32] On 29 August 2007, Owen scored his first competitive goal for Newcastle since December 2005 when he scored in the Carling Cup against Barnsley.[33] Three days later he scored in the league, with a late winner against Wigan Athletic.[34]

In late September 2007, after an encouraging start to the season playing for both Newcastle United and for 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.[35] 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[36]

After over 3 months without a goal, Owen scored the first goal of the second Kevin Keegan era in a 4-1 FA Cup 3rd 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 Kevin Keegan’s second stewardship, also marked the first time in his Newcastle career that Owen had scored more goals for Newcastle than against them[37]. By 5 April 2008, after his and the teams early season poor form, Owen had scored 6 goals in the last 6 matches, with Newcastle registering 4 wins and 2 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 2007-8 season.

Owen missed all of the pre season matches and training of the 2008-9 season due to a bout of Mumps, which also kept him out of the international friendlies with the USA and Trinidad & Tobago in May 2008. He also suffered a calf strain during the summer months which kept him out of the opening game of the season against Manchester United at Old Trafford, a game which Newcastle drew 1-1.

He made his return in the second game of the season against Bolton Wanderers on Saturday 23 August 2008, coming on in the 53rd minute for the injured Obafemi Martins. He scored the winning header in the 71st minute with the game finishing 1-0. Three days later he was named on the bench in a Carling Cup match away to Coventry City, he came on as a substitute and scored the winner in extra time in a 2-3 victory. After a pass from José Enrique, he sprinted clear of the Coventry defence and lifted the ball over the keeper. On 20th September 2008 he scored a brilliant low curling goal against West Ham in the 67th minute at Upton Park to bring the game to 3-1. Despite the goal sparking a late Newcastle rally, they still lost the game. Owen scored in Newcastle’s third round game against Tottenham Hotspur in the 90th minute, his 11th goal in 15 games. However it was not enough to save the game as Newcastle lost 1-2. A few days later on September 27th 2008 in a Premier League game at home to Blackburn Rovers, he earned and scored a penalty in the second half to bring the scoreline to 1-2.

Source: Michael James Owen, Newcastle United F.C. Captain and Striker, Barclay English Premier League Football Club information at wikipedia.org