Owen's "dagger in heart" Liverpool treatment and why he lied to Ferguson

25 July 2023 , 05:00

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Michael Owen was a huge success early in his career (Image: Getty Images)

Michael Owen really did burst onto the scene as a teenager setting the Premier League and the World Cup alight.

A career that promised so much delivered plenty, yet there is still a feeling of what if with the Liverpool academy star suffering injuries that prevented him from reaching his full potential. A back-to-back Golden Boot winner with Liverpool in the late 1990s and the only Red - as well as the last Englishman - to win the Ballon d'Or.

Manchester United also got the chance to sample his talents after Owen controversially chose to cross the red divide, which led to a frosty reception at Anfield. An iconic winner in a Manchester derby endeared him to the Stretford End, yet one of the most naturally gifted forwards this country has seen continues to divide opinion.

It is Robbie Fowler who was known as "God" on Merseyside. At Newcastle, he played alongside an icon in Alan Shearer. Whilst in Manchester he always had his previous connections attached to him.

Liverpool return heartbreak

Those connections came back to haunt him in 2009 as he returned to Anfield with the Red Devils. Sir Alex Ferguson had just picked up Owen on a free and was already reaping the rewards as he eyed a fourth straight league title.

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Winning at Liverpool was always a challenge such was the hostility between the two clubs and United found themselves trailing to a Fernando Torres strike one October afternoon. Enter Owen, with 16 minutes to go as he sought to thwart the club and the fans who once adored him.

The reception wasn't warm. It was never going to be. But it seems as though Owen couldn't prevent the hit that would come his way when the jeers echoed around the stadium.

Michael Owen returned to Anfield as a Man United player (Action Images)

Owen told Off The Ball in an interview in 2018: "When I go back to Anfield and one or two people booed me, it was like a dagger in my heart for what I did for the club and how I felt about it. And how I still feel."

Trips back to Anfield had been unkind to say the least for Owen, especially as he tried to return to Liverpool shortly after leaving in 2004. Rafa Benitez though didn't want to match Newcastle's offer and so the striker found himself playing on Merseyside as an away player.

Liverpool secured a comfortable victory on Boxing Day in 2005 and as Owen turned to the Kop, the stand that used to sing his name, he saw cutouts and reminders of the European Cup final victory just months earlier than he missed out on, which as a result etched former colleagues Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher into the club's history books.

Fergie lies

One thing Owen did land that eluded Gerrard and Carragher was a Premier League title, owing to his time in Manchester. Despite still being in his 20s when he moved to Manchester it was by no means the stage upon which the 89-cap England international reignited his career.

More often used as a squad player, which meant he had 17 goals across his three seasons at Old Trafford. He remained behind the likes of Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov in the pecking order but was once the most sought-after frontman in the country.

Ferguson had the chance to charm a young Owen when he was a star in the making at Melwood. At this point United were usurping Liverpool as England's elite club as they hunted down their haul of top-flight titles, but Owen's heart was firmly at Anfield - not that he confessed that.

He previously told The Premier League Storybook: "I'll never forget it, Sir Alex Ferguson, when I was only very young, and he literally looked me in the eye in his office at Old Trafford, again on game day. And he just looked at me and said, 'Do you want to play for Manchester United?" And I was like, 'yes,' type of thing. But obviously, you know, deep down I was a Liverpool fan at that time.

The forward was quizzed on his future by Sir Alex Ferguson as a youngster (AFP/Getty Images)

"I'd been playing at the club so you know, I basically paid him lip service. Later, obviously, I would go on to play for him, for Manchester United. But of course, at the time, I was just interested in playing for Liverpool."

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Time would pass and eventually Owen would take up the chance to play under Ferguson as he joined the Red Devils following the expiry of his Newcastle contract, but not before he passed a thorough medical amid numerous injury concerns.

Ferguson though, upon landing his man, said: "Michael is a world-class forward with a proven goalscoring record at the highest level and that has never been in question. Coming to Manchester United with the expectations that we have is something that Michael will relish."

Owen has since reflected on his time as a Manc and told the Daily Mail: "I’m respected at Man United; the derby winner, Champions League hat-trick, goal in a cup final. It’s not like I’m one of their own, we know that, but there’s mutual respect and good memories."

Samuel Meade