Manchester United’s Michael Owen is known as one of the best strikers of his generation. In 1998, he became England’s youngest player and goalscorer at the time. The 1998 World Cup made him a household name and he’s the only player in history to ever have scored in four major tournaments for England. In international play, he is England’s seventh most-capped player and has scored a national record of 26 competitive goals, with 40 in total from 89 appearances, most recently in 2008.

Owen’s long injury absence after the 2006 World Cup resulted in a dispute between FIFA and The FA and Newcastle United, and eventually resulted in an unprecedented £10m compensation award to Newcastle, and brought changes to the compensation arrangements between club and country regarding injuries sustained by contracted club players while on international duty.

He was signed to Manchester United in 2009 to a two year deal. At the beginning of last month, he re-upped with the Old Trafford club for another year [Read more…]