Michael James Owen is an English former striker footballer who has an estimated net worth of $50 million. He played 89 games with his national team and scored 40 goals. Owen participated at three World Cup in 1998, 2002, and 2006, scoring 4 times in 12 matches. He was England's youngest player at a World Cup in all history, just aged 18, and is the youngest player to have scored 100 goals in the English Premier League. During his career, Owen played 483 matches and scored 223 goals. In 2001, he won the Ballon d’Or, the most prestigious individual award for football players. Nowadays, Owen is a racehorse breeder and owner, an agent for young players, and a football commentator on television.

Owen was born on December 14, 1979 in Chester, Cheshire, to Jeanette and Terry Owen, who was also a footballer. He was the fourth of five children and was raised in Hawarden, Flintshire, Wales. Owen started to play football at seven, and by eight he began playing in Mold Alexandria Under-10 team. Despite the age difference, he finished the season with 34 goals in 24 games. After one year with Mold Alexandria, Owen was invited to the Under-11 team of the primary schools of Deeside, a conurbation of towns and villages in Flintshire and Cheshire on the Wales-England border. By then, his goals already had been an issue for local newspapers. His fame increased while he played for two squads at the same time, Hawarden Rangers and St. David's Park. When Owen turned 11, several clubs in England were interested in him, and he finally chose Liverpool.

For the 1996-97 season, at the age of sixteen, he was assigned to the Liverpool Under-18 and eventually received the captain's armband. In December 1996, four days after his 17th birthday, Owen signed a professional contract with Liverpool. Five months later, he debuted and scored a goal. On the 1997-98 season, Owen scored 18 times. As a consequence, he won the Premier League Golden Boot, and also the PFA Young Player of the Year. In October 1997, he had signed a five-year contract worth a basic of almost $3.5 million ($700,000 per year), and in February 1998 he had debuted at the England squad. Owen received the Premier League Golden Boot one more time in the 1998-99 season after scoring 18 goals again. The following season was frustrating for him because his gimpy hamstring prevented him from playing several games. In the 2000-01 season, Liverpool won the UEFA Cup and the English League Cup, and he obtained the European Player of the Year award.

In September 2001, Owen signed a four-year contract worth almost $100,000 per week ($5 million annually), making him one of the highest earners in the English Premiership. Liverpool challenged for the English Premier League title in 2001-02 but finished second. However, the team won the English FA Cup, the English Super Cup, and the UEFA Super Cup. In 2002-03, Liverpool failed to finish among the Champions League spots and Owen scored 19 times again, although the team won the English League Cup. Liverpool had a bad performance during 2003-04, and he didn’t play much because of injuries. Then Owen was transferred to Real Madrid for $14 million, where he stayed for a single season and scored 13 goals as the team finished runners-up in the league.

From 2005-06 to the 2008-09 season, Owen played for Newcastle, where he had arrived for $29.5 million with a weekly salary of almost $150,000 ($7.5 million per year). After that, Owen joined Manchester United for two seasons with a weekly basic salary of around $40,000 ($2 million annually) in a free transfer after his contract with Newcastle expired, and then he signed for one more year. During that time, the United won the 2010 English League Cup, the 2011 English Super Cup, and the 2011 English Premier League. Finally, he played for Stoke City during 2012-13 with a pay-as-you-play contract that implied being paid almost $10,000 for a minute in the field, around $18,500 for a touch of the ball, and half a million for a goal.

Owen is married to Louise Bonsall, who he met at primary school, since June 2005. The couple has four children, Gemma Rose (2003), James Michael (2006), Emily May (2007), and Jessica (2010). Since 2001, they live in a $5.5 million house in North Wales surrounded by 42 acres of countryside.

In 2007, Owen founded the Manor House Stables, a 160 acres thoroughbred horse racing training establishment located in Cheshire that was converted from a cattle barn by him and his wife. From 2012, he owns Michael Owen Management, a company involved in managing footballers' careers and focused on young players, with $205,238 in capital as of June 2020. Since 2014, Owen is a football commentator for television network BT Sports.

Owen released three books, Michael Owen in Person: England's Hero Lets You In To His Private World in 2000 (written with Dave Harrison), Michael Owen: Off The Record My Autobiography in 2014 (written with Paul Hayward), and Reboot: My Life, My Time in 2019, which was nominated to "The Telegraph Sports Book Award" for "Sport Autobiography of the Year".

Sources: The Sun, Transfermarkt, Transfermarkt (2), Jock Bio, Sportskeeda, LFC History, The Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent, Football Top, Rsvplive, Wales Online, Manor House Stables, UK Company Information Service, Daily Mail, The Standard, Goodreads, Goodreads (2), Goodreads (3).

This article was updated on March 26th, 2021 by Andres Taurian

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