The news of his retirement didn’t come as a shock to me I must say. It’s
one of those things that you know would eventually happen but you don’t know
exactly when. With a long list of injuries preventing him from really being as
great as he would have been makes his retirement a bit sad. As a fan there is
nothing more exciting than watching a footballer emerge from a young promising
talent to a world class star. That’s the same excitement I had watching Michael
Owen develop into a world class star.
Michael Owen truly has had a terrific career. Even with the list of
inquiries he still managed to make history. Before there were the Messi’s,
Ronaldo’s (Cristiano) there was Owen. Owen has the kind of pace that kept
defenders up at night, sweating profusely even in the winter with the thought
of facing Owen the next day. Owen moved past defenders like they were not
there. Like Redknapp said ‘He made bad balls look good’. He would run at
defenders all day long.
Coming in fourth in England’s all time scorers behind Bobby Charlton,
Gary Lineker and Jimmy Greaves with 40 goals in 89 appearances he definitely
has written his name in the history books of the English FA. Owen scored 158 goals in 297 appearances for Liverpool before leaving for Real Madrid. Owen had
an excellent career at Liverpool before all the hamstring injuries started
creeping in. With each injury there seemed to be a reduction in that blistering
pace. Without the pace he had to rely on controlling the ball and having a shot
in the box which worked in some instances but it was nothing like that
electrifying pace.
With Owen retiring at the end of the season I can’t help but play the ‘what
if’game with his career.
What if he wasn’t so injury prone?
What if he had stayed in Liverpool?
Just a couple of questions to ponder over this beautiful Wednesday morning.
One thing is for sure anyways Owen had superb talent and did the best he could
with it and will certainly be remembered for a very long time to come.
Well, till next time Stay true 2 the Beautiful Game…
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