'The boy is on fire'

Liverpool's Owen turns 22, capping remarkable 12 months

Michael Owen has turned many heads before even turning 22. Michael Steele/Allsport

LONDON (Reuters) -- After another breathless year of goalscoring heroics, Liverpool and England's jet-heeled striker Michael Owen will pause briefly to toast his 22nd birthday on Friday.

Even by his own precocious standards, it has been a remarkable 12 months for the nimble-footed prodigy who is tipped to become England's most prolific striker of all time.

Winners' medals in the League Cup, FA Cup and UEFA Cup for Liverpool, and qualification for his second World Cup with England, tell only half of the story.

In fact, the year started badly for Owen.

Dogged for weeks over the winter by a series of injuries and poor form, he sat mournfully on the substitutes' bench in the League Cup final against Birmingham City in February.

Manager Gerard Houllier declined even to use England's No. 1 striker as a substitute in extra time, and Owen watched from the sidelines as an unimpressive Liverpool triumphed in a penalty shootout against their division one opponents.

May's FA Cup final against Arsenal was very different. Owen started the match and, after a quiet game, scored two poacher's goals in the final seven minutes to transform a 1-0 deficit into a glorious 2-1 triumph.

But the year 2001 will be remembered by England fans for one game in which Owen was again the central figure -- the astonishing 5-1 win over Germany in Munich when he struck the most famous England hat trick since Geoff Hurst's unique treble in the 1966 World Cup final.

Devastating finish

The victory turned England's qualifying group on its head and assured their striker of a permanent place in his country's soccer folklore.

Except that Owen, who has achieved more in the first four years of his career than most players do in a lifetime, already had one.

Owen's third goal in Munich, when he drifted clear of the defense and arrowed the ball high into the German net was reminiscent of an even better effort which launched his career at the 1998 World Cup.

Argentina were the opponents in the French town of St. Etienne when England's fledgling striker set off on a slalom run through their defense which culminated in a devastating finish into the top left-hand corner of the net.

It ranked as the best individual goal scored by an England player for a decade and was the perfect example of his two greatest qualities -- eye-watering pace and ruthless finishing.

By then the 18-year-old had already established himself with Liverpool, for whom he made a goalscoring debut against Wimbledon a year earlier.

Hamstring worry

As an 11-year-old schoolboy Owen once scored 79 goals in a single season.

It is taking him slightly longer to reach the century mark for Liverpool, with last Saturday's long-range effort against Middlesbrough his 99th in 180 games spread over four-and-a-half seasons at Anfield.

After that game assistant manager Phil Thompson hailed the completeness of Liverpool's one-man goal machine.

"He scores all kinds of different goals," said Thompson. "He scored a header against United recently, a sniffer's goal against Derby and now a long-range strike against Middlesbrough.

"He deserves all the credit which comes his way because the boy is on fire right now."

Owen's goals per game ratio is only marginally less impressive at international level -- 14 from 32 appearances -- and the odds on him breaking Bobby Charlton's all-time record of 49 goals are narrowing all the time.

All this has been achieved despite the fact that he was sidelined for a large chunk of 1999 by persistent hamstring trouble.

The fear of a recurrence -- and there have been several false alarms already this season -- is the only cloud on Owen's horizon as 2002 dawns.

Liverpool are heading the chase for the Premier League title and contesting the second phase of the Champions League, not to mention the FA Cup. Then there is England's World Cup campaign in Japan in June, with Argentina again on the menu.

At the ripe old age of 22, Owen's club and country are once again depending on him.

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