Michael Owen Quotes & Sayings

You need people who score goals. That's how you win games — Michael Owen

It bothers me when I don't score. — Michael Owen

I wouldn't change my life for the world at the moment. — Michael Owen

I have never thought of a scenario where international football was not a massive part of our [England] game. — Michael Owen

For me there's nothing better than putting the white shirt on for England and playing for England. I'd get worried if it wasn't like that. — Michael Owen

I hate to admit this but I don't even know how to make a cup of tea or coffee. I can boil a kettle for a pot noodle and I've been known to warm up some food in the microwave. — Michael Owen

So proud to be joining the best team in the world. — Michael Owen

The longer my career has gone, the more I seem to score ... It's experience and age and knowing where the ball's going to be. — Michael Owen

[Wayne Rooney] has to be viewed as a great England striker if he breaks Sir Bobby Charlton's record. Scoring goals at international level is much more difficult than it was a few years back because even the lesser teams are well organised and don't concede too many goals these days. — Michael Owen

As I've got older, I've become more intrigued about formations, tactics, I listen a lot more to the manager's team talk; as a kid, if I'm honest, I never listened. — Michael Owen

I want to have as normal a life as possible. — Michael Owen

Best atmosphere I ever played in was at Celtic Park in the UEFA Cup for Liverpool. — Michael Owen

I've always wanted to be a top footballer since I was young. — Michael Owen

Scholesy was a genius, absolute genius. He was a center-forward's dream, you could make a run and he'd put the ball perfectly in your path. Any footballer you ask will always tell you that Scholesy was one of the best players they've ever played with. — Michael Owen

I have always been confident that I would make it to the top. — Michael Owen

You always come back to earth with a thump at some stage. Life has it's ups and downs; the acid test is how you handle the downs. — Michael Owen

I don't set myself targets. Last season I scored hat-trick against Wolfsburg and three days later, that was forgotten, you're about to be judged again. When you've done well, you don't want another game, you just want to feel great. When you've done badly, you can't wait for another chance to come. — Michael Owen

Game by game is how I judge myself. At the end of the season, yeah, I do look back and think about how many games I've been available for, how many goals I've scored, how I've contributed. But that's what the summer's for. For now, you just look to the next one. — Michael Owen

The difference with football is you're out on the pitch, you feel as though you can do something about it, or score a goal. But when that horse goes down to post as an owner you have no involvement whatsoever. It's a lonely old place in the stand. It's just down to man and beast. — Michael Owen

Clubs don't like their players going off to play international matches and you can see a scenario where they eventually start to make it more difficult for international sides to call up players. — Michael Owen

I think the greatest Real Madrid player of all time is Cristiano Ronaldo followed by Ferenc Puskas.
Ronaldo equalled Puskas' great record of 242 goals in fewer games.
He was also the fastest Real Madrid player to score 100 goals and holds the record for most goals scored for Madrid in a season. — Michael Owen

[Wayne Rooney ] best tournament was the 2004 European Championships, when he played alongside me and made such a big impact, but it hasn't happened for him at the World Cup for one reason or another. — Michael Owen

I've got no hamstring in the middle. I'm basically running on two hamstrings on my right leg and three on the other. That injury has probably changed my whole career. I've been compromised from the age of 19. — Michael Owen

He's fantastic on the ground but obviously he is very tall.
(on Peter Crouch) — Michael Owen

Give me a great Champions League game or an exciting Premier League game ahead of an international match and I'd love that to reverse. A lot of people have lost interest in England games, it is quite hard to watch. — Michael Owen

My Dad was briefly an Everton player and I used to follow them as a boy. — Michael Owen

Often the biggest test is when the chips are down and you've got to stick together as a team. — Michael Owen

You're obviously conscious of being brash or big-headed but I always knew I was going to be a footballer when I was seven or eight. I didn't just think I wanted to be one, I knew I was going to be one. Nothing ever surprised me really. — Michael Owen

There are pitfalls in World Cups, there are players who can win penalties and players who get the slightest touch and go down holding their face or whatever and get someone sent off. There are all these little things and you're hoping that you're not on the wrong end of it. — Michael Owen

If you have any setback in your life, like not being in the England squad was for me - any setback, like losing a family member - everyone handles it in different ways. When I first wasn't included I was numb. I'd been the main England striker for years and years. It was really disappointing. — Michael Owen

My kids are one, three, five and eight, and we are all horsey. The kids have got their ponies and can ride. Our foundation mare is special to our hearts. She was one of my first ever horses. She was my first ever winner at Chester, which is also special, and she's just the apple of our eyes, really. — Michael Owen

I basically run on two hamstrings on my right leg and three on the other. I'm losing a third of the power. — Michael Owen

I don't want to pack everything into one year and then do nothing the rest of my life. I think it's important to do things bit by bit. — Michael Owen

There have been more things wrong with England than just Wayne Rooney in the last few years. — Michael Owen

I joined Twitter and you read a lot of the comments. You're biting your lip and you want to reply but you know a headline will be made from it and you don't want to give people the satisfaction. — Michael Owen

To be at the top, you have to have a competitive streak in you. If you're not performing, you've got to be angry with yourself. — Michael Owen

There is no doubt that I would have won more honours had I signed for Manchester United as a youngster. — Michael Owen

I have a great family, good friends, a nice girlfriend, my own house. I have got everything how I want it to be. — Michael Owen

If you look at anyone at the top of their profession, there has to be something a little bit different. Some of the top musicians are quirky aren't they, to say the least. You have to be driven, cold, hard and mentally tough as iron. My missus thinks I'm a bit weird. — Michael Owen

If you look at football over the last 50 years there has been a gradual decrease in goals, you don't see too many 10-nils these days, but two, three or four goals per game is a good spectacle. — Michael Owen

You are affected by the surroundings, the mood of people, by confidence. I am no different. — Michael Owen

I've always been a player that likes to get round the back and get crosses in for other people. When I first burst on to the scene some people only saw the goals I was scoring. More recently they've taken notice of the goals I've set up. It is nice to be recognized for that. — Michael Owen

I don't feel pressure going into games. — Michael Owen

If you're a goal scorer, you have to have a certain attitude. I'm very serious. My missus thinks I'm a bit weird. I'm cold, I don't have many emotions. It's very rare I cry. — Michael Owen

There's nothing quite like a World Cup. — Michael Owen

I thought I would break the scoring record when I got to 40 goals by the age of 27 or 28, but then Fabio Capello took over and he never picked me again. — Michael Owen

Fortunately I am a mentally strong person and believe I will learn from the experience and continue to improve as a player and person because of it.
(on breaking his leg) — Michael Owen

You're on your own out there with ten mates. — Michael Owen

You learn to understand it, but if you step back, you do think it is either strange or unfair. But I know that if you don't score, play well or win, you are wrong to have a helicopter and fly home each week to see your kids. You are wrong to have a business outside of football. — Michael Owen

At 18 to 20, I was probably one of the quickest things around, at the peak of my powers. — Michael Owen

Nobody on this planet had a range of passing like Paul Scholes. Training every day was a pleasure just watching him. Unbelievable career. — Michael Owen

As a youngster, I was considered exceptional, and in many ways that was to my detriment. — Michael Owen

When you put better teams in front of you, that's when the big players rise to that occasion. — Michael Owen

I was proper, proper fast at one point, and obviously I'm not now, so I've lost certain things, but when I was that fast I didn't need to do certain other things in a game. It was such a potent weapon. — Michael Owen

I find it hard to say no to people. — Michael Owen

An emotion that lives with me is a sense of 'what might have been' had injuries not robbed me of my most lethal weapon - speed. — Michael Owen

I feel that every time I get the ball at the moment I am going to score. — Michael Owen

To breed a winner, let alone at Royal Ascot, is unbelievable. I've got four children and they all love the mother. We pat it most days and she's a lovely mare. — Michael Owen

The way I look at myself, the biggest achievement in my eyes - forget winning trophies or scoring in World Cups - is that I'm still at a top club playing at a really high standard having been almost two different players. — Michael Owen

If you only ever give 90% in training then you will only ever give 90% when it matters. — Michael Owen

I want to be a top-flight football player, so I lead the life that enables me to be that type of player. I prefer to be seen in a decent light rather than an indecent one. — Michael Owen

If you cut me in half, I'm a footballer. — Michael Owen

I don't believe in superstitions. I just do certain things because I'm scared in case something will happen if I don't do them — Michael Owen

To be the best you have to forget partying and concentrate all your energies on the football. — Michael Owen

I'd love to go and I'd love to play for my country and go to a World Cup again. I've got to accept I'm not in the current squad and just think, 'If I get it, it's a bonus and I'll give it everything.' But it's hard to do when you've been thinking a different way all your life. — Michael Owen

I would like to think that if I stop playing in three, four, five years time, whatever it may be, that I would still be involved in football and still have that as my profession. It is my passion and what I know. — Michael Owen

When you're a kid you just think about where you are going to be to put yourself in a position for the next scoring chance. But as you develop, you start to do things that may not catch the eye of the normal football watcher, the dropping back, the closing down. — Michael Owen

Horses will never be my career. It's just a big passion of mine, and one that will always be there in the background, but football is my main passion and everyone knows that. — Michael Owen

England have players who can rattle anyone's feathers — Michael Owen

I was born to score goals, I feel. How I score them - how I get the ball into the back of the net - might have changed. The actual ability of what I was born to do will never leave me. — Michael Owen

Henry had taken striking on to a different level — Michael Owen

The bottom line is that I wanted to come back and play in the Premier League again and wake up on Saturday morning and really fancy getting out there and playing in front of this fantastic support, scoring goals and enjoying football.
(on returning to the premiership) — Michael Owen

I think England are probably not as streetwise as plenty of other teams. The other top teams know how to keep a victory or do certain things to hang on to leads or get back in games. They're a lot more streetwise than us. I think as a nation we are very honest, we try to win the right way. — Michael Owen

To stay in the game, you have to stay in the game. — Michael Owen

The Spanish league is fantastic, but it has not the great passion the English Premiership has got. — Michael Owen

The better the opposition put in front of you, the better your team plays. — Michael Owen

All Newcastle fans need to know is that I will be giving everything for their cause now. — Michael Owen

I have been very fortunate in that my career has taken me on a journey I could only have dreamed of. — Michael Owen

I'm confident in my own ability. If that wasn't the case you might as well pack it in now. If you think too much, you start doubting yourself, doubting your quality, so you have to train yourself in a certain way. — Michael Owen

Everton have a healthy list of injuries. — Michael Owen

I can't believe anyone can have played the game of football as well as Messi. — Michael Owen

If I'd still been in one piece from the World Cup and gone through my career, what type of player would I have been? No doubt about it, if I hadn't had as many injuries I would have been the all-time leading scorer for England. — Michael Owen

I was born to score goals, I feel. — Michael Owen