Football: Michael Owen just gets better

'All the money in the world wouldn't even buy his left hand,' says Gerald Houllier of England's young striker Michael Owen. ANDREW LONGMORE reports.

A walk down the corridor of the Liverpool Academy is not just a journey through a familiar landscape for John Owens, it is like viewing the portraiture of his past.

Owens worked for the past nine years as a part-time youth coach at Liverpool, but has just ended his career as a schoolteacher to take up a fulltime post in the academy.

He will take no credit for the development of the crop of young talent bequeathed to the nation, but as he passes from office to training ground each morning the image of Michael Owen still prompts a smile of satisfaction.

"It was just a privilege to work with young players of that calibre," Owens, who had Owen in his charge when he was England under-15 manager, says. "A player like Michael would have come through anyway, whatever I did or didn't do.

"The potential was there for all to see. But it is still a thrill to sit back and watch it come to fruition."

That's a sentiment which was shared by much of the nation by the end of a glorious and giddy week in which the national side humbled Germany and downed Albania to almost secure an automatic place in the World Cup finals.

As Owen single-handedly dismantled a German institution, Owens' mind rewound to the afternoon of a schoolboy international against Scotland. The England defence had just conceded a daft goal and their leader was incensed.

Owen retrieved the ball from his own net, ran back to the centre spot, ordered a minion to pass to him and slalomed through the Scottish defence to score straight from the kick-off.

"There were none of the ricochets or messy little goals you would expect from schoolboys," Owens recalls. "Michael only ever scored adult goals."

Careers of prodigies are always framed in such tales. The difference with Owen is that the snapshot of single-mindedness sounds entirely believable.

From his early days at Hawarden Youth Club through his 97-goal season for Deeside Primary Schools in Cheshire, during which he eclipsed the record of Ian Rush, to Gerard Houllier at Liverpool and Sven Goran Eriksson with England, all those associated with Owen's relentless rise to stardom will talk of the extraordinary depth of his hunger and the utter certainty of his ambition.

It was not just the goals which were adult. Owen seemed to regard his whole youth as a dress rehearsal for life beyond.

Owens recalled: "He was very mature in all aspects of his life, not just on the pitch. He had such a strong mental attitude and such a willingness to learn and develop. There was never any doubt in his mind where he was heading."

By the time the dust had settled on the four adult goals against Germany and Albania which have taken England to an unlikely spot atop group nine and to within a home victory over Greece of a place in the finals, Owen had begun to gatecrash the sort of statistical enclosure reserved for legends.

The records of Bobby Smith, Martin Chivers and Paul Mariner were vanquished in the last two matches. Two ahead of Owen's 14 goals in 32 games lie Tommy Taylor and Tony Woodcock.

In the heady aftermath of Munich, few cared to measure Owen's future place in the firmament with any degree of perspective. The best since Diego Maradona? asked one newspaper. All targets seemed within his compass. Except one.

"You are talking about the greatest striker that I have ever seen," said former England midfielder Alan Mullery, when called upon to include the names of Owen and Jimmy Greaves in the same sentence.

"When I first saw Greavsie at Tottenham, I thought what a lucky sod he was. He used to score goals off his shins, off the post, little tap-ins, everything, but he was still scoring them five years later.

"Michael's a top-class goalscorer, no question, and he's very young, but come back to me in five years when he's scored 30 a season consistently and then we'll see. Jimmy was gifted, by God."

On closer analysis, Mullery will admit to similarities of technique and instinct.

"Greaves was lightning over 10 yards, quicker than Michael, I think, and he had this great little shimmy that Michael is starting to develop.

"They were built quite similarly. If anything, Michael is a bit heavier, but he's like Jimmy in that he knows exactly what he's going to do with the ball before he's got it."

Owen would regard the comparison as a compliment and a challenge. His instinct is ferociously competitive.

On Good Friday, 1998, a tackle on Manchester United defender Ronnie Johnsen, which earned Owen a red card, was judged the second worst in the premiership that season.

Captaining the England under-18 side against Yugoslavia the year before, Owen was sent off for butting an opponent in the chest. Only a difference in stature, one suspects, stopped him from executing the full Glasgow kiss.

Munich provided more positive confirmation of those fighting qualities.

"It proved that his career's moved on a stage," Owens said. "He was the Superkid, then as always happens when there's a dip, we knock him down and now he's responded to the adversity, first at club level, then at international level.

"To me, Alan Shearer's decision to retire was crucial to that. Michael is the main striker now. He's not playing second fiddle to anyone and he is thriving on that freedom."

The striker now is a more robust character than the boy who shocked Argentina in St Etienne in the summer of 1998.

"He still looks innocent, but inside he is a man," as Oliver Kahn, the German goalkeeper, remarked.

The thighs are thicker, the neck muscles tauter, the frame stockier. Only the eyes retain the innocent intensity of the schoolboy.

When Owen pulled up clutching his hamstring in April 1999, the Liverpool backroom staff were forced into a radical revision of his fitness regime.

With help from Germany, of all places, Owen has strengthened the core of his physique, corrected his posture, his way of walking, his way of running and markedly improved his flexibility.

"He spends hours away from the training pitch, making sure he stays right physically," says Houllier. "He has dramatically improved his strength and power. Yet the key is that he has managed to retain his speed. He heads and volleys better and his overall game awareness is much more impressive. He's a hard worker and always willing to learn."

The frightening conclusion is that Owen is still improving.

"If he continues to take our advice on board, then God knows how good he can be," says the Frenchman.

Owen has already bought a street for family members. When the fullstops are put on a new contract, worth an estimated £60,000 ($203,155) a week, he will be able to complete his own personal Monopoly board.

Liverpool, in the meantime, are pulling up the drawbridge in anticipation of some extravagant offers from overseas.

"All the money in the world wouldn't even buy his left hand," Houllier said.

Some national treasures, it seems, are just not for sale.

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