page_title: Michael Owen
section_title: Real Madrid
hierarchical_section_title: Michael Owen / Club career / Real Madrid
caption_attribution_description: Micael Owen playing for Real Madrid at an Irdning (Styria, Austria) training camp. Cropped version.
context_page_description: Michael James Owen is an English former footballer who played as a striker for Liverpool, Real Madrid, Newcastle United, Manchester United and Stoke City, as well as for the England national team. Since retiring from football in 2013, he has become a racehorse breeder and owner and regularly features as a sports pundit and commentator.
  The son of former footballer Terry Owen, Owen was born in Chester and began his senior career at Liverpool in 1996. He progressed through the Liverpool youth team and scored on his debut in May 1997. In his first full season in the Premier League, he finished as joint top scorer with 18 goals. He repeated this the following year and was Liverpool's top goal-scorer from 1997–2004, gaining his name as a proven goal-scorer despite suffering from a recurring hamstring injury. In 2001, Liverpool won a cup treble of the UEFA Cup, FA Cup and Football League Cup, and Owen was the recipient of the Ballon d'Or. He went on to score 118 goals in 216 appearances in the Premier League for Liverpool, and 158 goals in 297 total appearances.
context_section_description: Following their successful bid, Owen was presented with the number 11 shirt by Real Madrid. Owen joined the club during its Galácticos era, and played alongside Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos, Raúl, Luís Figo, Zinedine Zidane and his England teammate David Beckham.
  Owen had a slow start to his Madrid career. He was often confined to the bench and drew criticism from fans and the Spanish press for his lack of form. A successful return to action with the England squad in October 2004 seemed to revive his morale, however, and in the first following match, he scored his first goal for the club, the winner in a 1–0 Champions League victory over Dynamo Kyiv. A few days later, he scored his first La Liga goal in a 1–0 victory over Valencia. The scoring spree continued, as he found the back of the net in three of the next four matches to make it five goals in seven successive matches.
  On 10 April 2005, Owen scored Real Madrid's fourth goal in a 4–2 El Clásico win over Barcelona at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium.
  Owen ended the 2004–05 season with 13 goals in La Liga, with the season's highest ratio of goals scored to number of minutes played. Following Madrid's signing of two high-profile Brazilian forwards, Robinho and Júlio Baptista, in the summer of 2005, the speculation arose that Owen would return to the Premier League. During his time at Real Madrid, Owen scored 16 goals from 45 games, 26 of which were starts.
caption: Owen at a training camp with Real Madrid
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