Flashback: The impressive but injury-plagued career of Ballon d'Or winner Michael Owen

At the end of the 2012/13 season with the Premier League club, Owen called time on his great career.

Let's take a look at some of the high and low points of one of English football's most prolific strikers.

Wonderboy

Michael Owen was born on December 14th, 1979, in Chester, North-West England, as the fourth child of his parents. His father, Terry Owen, is a former professional footballer whose most famous spell was at Everton. That's why Michael was a boyhood Everton fan.

He was introduced to football at the age of seven and already by the age of 10, some of England's leading club scouts were monitoring his progress. Sides such as Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United became interested in him.

However, he and his parents chose Liverpool, as the Reds guaranteed an emphasis on his education. Owen thus continued his studies at secondary school and Liverpool also persuaded him to attend the Football Association's School of Excellence at Lilleshall at age 14.

Owen started playing for England teams from under-15 upwards, breaking several scoring records. He also excelled in the Liverpool academy. Throughout this time, Owen completed his studies with impressive results.

Despite the academic success, he was destined to become a professional footballer. He signed his first professional contract four months later on his seventeenth birthday in December 1996.

Ballon d'Or

Owen made his first-team debut for the Reds in May 1997 in a match against Wimbledon, where he came on as a substitute and immediately scored.

Owen replaced the injured Robbie Fowler as Liverpool's first-choice striker in 1997/98, and with 18 league goals, he became the Premier League's top scorer and was voted the best youngster of the year.

As a result, Owen was also called up to the national team. He was England's best player at the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France and became famous around the world, especially after his goal against Argentina.

Owen was constantly proving his reputation as an elite goal-scorer despite suffering from a recurring hamstring injury. In 2001, Liverpool won a cup treble of the UEFA Cup, FA Cup (with Owen scoring two late goals in the final) and League Cup, and Owen subsequently received the Ballon d'Or.

In 2003, at the age of 23 years and 134 days, Owen became the youngest player to have reached 100 goals in the Premier League (not even Erling Haaland will surpass him as he is already 24).

One of the Galacticos

Owen scored a total of 158 goals in 297 games for Liverpool between 1997 and 2004. It was at that time he longed for a new challenge and heeded the call of the Spanish giants Real Madrid.

However, in a new country and in the era of the so-called Galacticos of Real Madrid, he was used mostly only as a substitute.

Owen scored 13 goals in LaLiga before returning to England the following season where he joined Newcastle United after Real had rejected an earlier bid from former club Liverpool. 

Owen's injury as a legal dispute

The 2005/2006 season was to be a reboot for Owen to get in shape for the 2006 World Cup. The plan worked perfectly at the beginning, and in December 2005, Owen crowned his good early-season performances with a hat-trick against West Ham United.

It was played away in London and Owen achieved the perfect hat-trick of goals scored with his right foot, left foot and head. He even assisted Shearer for the fourth goal as Newcastle won 4-2. 

However, another trip to London was bittersweet for Owen. In the New Year's Eve match at Tottenham, he suffered a severe injury. The diagnosis was a broken metatarsal bone in his foot and he had to undergo surgery.

He was expected to be back on the pitch at the end of March 2006, but the Englishman's leg took a little longer to heal. His return finally came in late April, although after the match against Birmingham City, Owen stated that he was "not 100% happy" with his foot. 

He skipped the final league match of the season and finished the campaign with only 11 appearances and seven goals. Nevertheless, Owen became a part of England's starting lineup at the World Cup.

In the third group match against Sweden, Owen suffered another injury in the early moments. The diagnosis was even worse this time: a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his knee.

He was recovering from the injury for almost a year and did not appear on the field until April 2007. The seriousness of Owen's injury at the World Cup inflamed the so-called "club versus country" row in England.

Newcastle United demanded compensation from the English FA and FIFA. The club wanted both the FA and FIFA to cover Owen's salary and medical treatment for an injury sustained on international duty.

Under the existing insurance arrangements between club and country, the FA and FIFA had been paying £50,000 of Owen's £110,000 weekly wages since he suffered the injury, totalling approximately £2 million for the time he hadn't been able to play.

Later, in 2009, Owen moved from Newcastle United to another big club. He signed for Liverpool's arch-rivals, Manchester United. However, due to persistent injury problems, he did not play too many games for the Red Devils during his three seasons in Manchester.

Owen's last appearance came in the 2012/13 season at Stoke City, during which he also scored his 150th and final Premier League goal.