paddy wrote:These accolades usually go to players involved in successful club sides of that year. Bayern won the Champions League as a team without any stars in 2001. Steffan Effenberg for the Balon d'Or? No thanks

Michael Owen had an absolutely outstanding season. He was the star in a remarkably successful Liverpool side and by all accounts, at 21/22, looked like he was going to be the leading light in English football for some years to come.

That's how Michael Owen won the Balon d'Or

ynwa wrote:

McAgger wrote:

BarcaLearning wrote:Was reading up on the history of spending on the goal website of Real vs Barca for the last 10 yrs. And Owen actually was sold to Real for 12M, only 1 year later Newcastle bought him for 25M? Thats way off of what Wiki says

What im wondering though is anyone know what the situation was at Liverpool that they had to sell him for so cheap (I know the deal included a Spanish player that flopped)? And Newcastle able to spend that much for him knowing Real made quite a profit?

Well Owen basically f*cked Liverpool over. He only had a 1 year left in his contract and he told everyone at Liverpool that he was signing a deal all season only to back stab the club and facilitate his own move to Madrid.

But we got our revenge winning the CL with Baros :lol:as our main ST the next season with Owen suffering on the bench at Madrid

After a year in Madrid, Owen was crying to be back at Anfield, but we basically told him to f*ck off.

He put the Liverpool management in strife. He refused to sign a new contract, so we had pretty much no chance of keeping him unless we let him go on a free. Which we couldn't do as we weren't the richest club and needed the money. Can't seem to remember now, but did he leave under Ged or when Rafa was first appointed [and refused to talk to Rafa]?

He really shouldn't have been on the bench at Madrid, to be fair. He was out performing Raul and Ronaldo that season. His name wasn't "big" enough so never started. Karma, I guess.

Not too sure if he was crying for a move back, to be honest. I seem to remember us wanting him and I think we had genuine interest but couldn't match Newcastle's offer.

BarcaLearning wrote:

ynwa wrote:

McAgger wrote:

Well Owen basically f*cked Liverpool over. He only had a 1 year left in his contract and he told everyone at Liverpool that he was signing a deal all season only to back stab the club and facilitate his own move to Madrid.

But we got our revenge winning the CL with Baros :lol:as our main ST the next season with Owen suffering on the bench at Madrid

After a year in Madrid, Owen was crying to be back at Anfield, but we basically told him to f*ck off.

He put the Liverpool management in strife. He refused to sign a new contract, so we had pretty much no chance of keeping him unless we let him go on a free. Which we couldn't do as we weren't the richest club and needed the money. Can't seem to remember now, but did he leave under Ged or when Rafa was first appointed [and refused to talk to Rafa]?

He really shouldn't have been on the bench at Madrid, to be fair. He was out performing Raul and Ronaldo that season. His name wasn't "big" enough so never started. Karma, I guess.

Not too sure if he was crying for a move back, to be honest. I seem to remember us wanting him and I think we had genuine interest but couldn't match Newcastle's offer.

Yep, it was too bad for him that king Raul of Madrid and Ronaldo was first choice, Figo, just too many stars there, Anelka was there too at some point I think.... Galaticos one was a bit of disaster becos it just wasnt very realistic to sustain so many big stars and keep them all happy.

For those of u that dont know, I mean I was a Liverpool fan, and stopped supporting them after stars that I loved like Macca, Fowler, Owen all left, pretty fair I think if ur favourite players r not there anymore and the football were just completely different to when I started supporting them. Then I was neutral for years b4 I started supporting Barca

Berbatov wrote:In 2001, Michael Owen won the Ballon D'Or. This is the ranking of the top 5:

1. Michael Owen - Liverpool - 176 points
2. Raúl - Real Madrid - 140 points
3. Oliver Kahn - Bayern Munich - 114 points
4. David Beckham - Manchester United - 102 points
5. Francesco Totti - Roma - 57 points

How in the world did Michael Owen win the Ballon D'Or? What about his performances made him better than Raúl? Because I think that it was a robbery, and probably the worst of this millennium.