Del Piero is in the midst of his final season with Juventus. He is 37-years-old. Teddy Sheringham played professional football until he was 42 years old. Even Dean Windass was still performing at the ripe old age of 39. So why do people insist on talking about 32-year-old Michael Owen as if he career is all but over?
At his age he should have at least three-four years left of him at the top level and yet he seems content to let his career wind down on the bench at Manchester United. If his time at United is to act as a punctuation mark on his career, then it will be a sad ending for a player once regarded as one of England’s brightest prospects.
With just 79 minutes of Premier League football in his pocket this season, Owen seems more content to comment on games via Twitter, than to actually make a difference for the club. With so little playing time this season (and last year), you’d think his England playing career was all but over. Not according to Michael Owen, however, who with a remarkable lack of self-awareness told the Daily Mirror:
“I am proud of what I did for England and what I have done. Obviously Sir Bobby’s records are in my sights. I am still here.”
Still here, perhaps, but still performing is an entirely different matter. How Owen can expect Fabio Capello to give him a chance when he’s not had regular football under his belt for such a long time is a mystery to me. The occasional good performance in the Carling Cup simply isn’t good enough if he expects to get back into the England line-up.
He needs to be performing week-in and week-out, something he’ll never have the chance to do at Manchester United, given the amount of talent the club have on the books.
Sir Bobby Charlton accrued 49 England goals over his illustrious career and Owen currently has 40. He may be only 9 goals away, but without game time the distance will be insurmountable. If he’s serious about breaking this record, he’ll need to rethink his career in the summer.
Indeed, the actions Owen takes in the summer may well come to colour how we view his career. Will he be somebody who took a gamble and won back the respect of the fans, or somebody whose complacency ended up overshadowing his talent?
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