Owen Hargreaves

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Owen Hargreaves
O Hargreaves.jpg
in the shirt of Manchester United - 2008
Personnel
Surname Owen Lee Hargreaves
birthday January 20, 1981
place of birth Calgary ,  Canada
size 180 cm
position midfield
Juniors
Years station
0000-1997 Calgary Foothills
1997-2000 FC Bayern Munich
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
2000-2001 FC Bayern Munich amateurs 15 (4)
2000-2007 FC Bayern Munich 145 (5)
2007-2011 Manchester United 28 (2)
2011–2012 Manchester City 1 (0)
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
2000 England U-21 3 (0)
2001-2008 England 42 (0)
1 Only league games are given.

Owen Lee Hargreaves (born January 20, 1981 in Calgary , Canada ) is a former Canadian- British soccer player . He played for the English national team and ten years for Bayern Munich .

Career

societies

Hargreaves started playing soccer at Calgary Foothills and joined the youth department of FC Bayern Munich in 1997. Outgrown the youth, he finally moved up in the summer of 2000 in the amateur team, for which he played 15 regional league games in the 2000/01 season and scored four goals. As early as 1999/2000 , Hargreaves had gained first experience in senior football in eleven games in what was then the third highest division.

He made his debut in the professional team on August 12, 2000 (1st matchday) in a 4-1 win at home against Hertha BSC when he came on for Carsten Jancker in the 73rd minute . In the same season, he caught the attention of the media when he replaced the yellow- banned Stefan Effenberg in the Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid and far exceeded expectations. In the final against Valencia CF he played 120 minutes and thus contributed to winning the 2001 Champions League. He scored his first Bundesliga goal on January 26, 2003 (18th matchday) in a 3-0 win in the home game against Borussia Mönchengladbach with the goal to make it 1-0 in the 25th minute.

In October 2005, Hargreaves extended his contract with Bayern Munich until June 30, 2010. In August 2006, according to media reports , Manchester United offered € 25 million for Hargreaves, and then € 30 million in December, and Hargreaves was toying with the move to England. However, Bavaria insisted on compliance with the contract and did not release it.

In May 2007, FC Bayern finally agreed with Manchester United on a transfer fee of 25 million euros, the highest transfer fee that had ever been paid for a Bundesliga player. Hargreaves signed a four-year contract. On May 31, 2007, the English confirmed the move to July 1, 2007, although Hargreaves had not yet signed a contract. On the same day, FC Bayern announced the change on its homepage and confirmed a "transfer fee [...] in the Bundesliga record level". In 2008 he won not only the championship but also the Champions League with Manchester United.

Shortly after the start of the following season 2008/09 - Hargreaves had just completed two league games - the knee problems that had already occurred at Hargreaves in the previous season worsened. After two unsuccessful operations in London and Sweden, he was treated by the American specialist Richard Steadman in November 2008 and was operated on again - again in January 2009. As a result, he was no longer used for the remainder of the season and only returned at the end September 2009 returned to Manchester for a week as part of his rehabilitation program in the United States.

On May 2, 2010 (37th matchday) Hargreaves was substituted on in the 1-0 win in the away game against Sunderland AFC in the 90th minute for Ryan Giggs and returned to the field after about 21 months. After another injury break, he played on November 6, 2010 (11th matchday), in the 3-2 win at home against Wolverhampton Wanderers , for the first time since September 2008, but had to be replaced after ten minutes due to a thigh injury. That game would be his last for Manchester, as on May 22, 2011 Alex Ferguson confirmed to the Mail on Sunday newspaper that Hargreaves' expiring contract with Manchester United would not be renewed.

On August 31, 2011, the league competitor and city rival Manchester City announced the commitment of Hargreaves, who provided him with a contract valid until June 30, 2012. On September 21, 2011 he scored the opening goal in the League Cup in a 2-0 win over Birmingham City; his only competitive goal for the Citizens .

Hargreaves (center) at Manchester City's 2012 championship celebration

After a season with only four missions (in three competitions), the club prematurely dissolved the contract with Hargreaves in May 2012. He played his only league game on November 15, 2011 (8th matchday) in a 4-1 home game against Aston Villa and ended his footballing career on June 30, 2012.

National team

On August 31, 2000, Hargreaves played in the national shirt for the first time when the U-21 selection in Middlesbrough won 6-1 against the selection of Georgia. This was followed by two more appearances in the international test matches against the selection of Italy and Spain . In the senior team he made his debut on August 15, 2001 in London in the 0-2 defeat in the international test match against the Netherlands . His second appearance was on September 1, 2001 in the Munich Olympic Stadium in a 5-1 win in the World Cup qualifier against Germany , when he came on for Steven Gerrard in the 78th minute . Hargreaves was the only "legionnaire" in the squad of the senior team at the 2002 World Cup . He also took part in both the 2004 European Championship in Portugal and the 2006 World Cup in Germany . Although his nomination was controversial - he himself suspected the reason that he played in Germany and was born in Canada - he was named the best English World Cup player after the tournament. Due to good performances, especially in the quarter-finals against Portugal (which England lost on penalties as only Owen Hargreaves converted his penalty), he was rehabilitated after the World Cup, when the media and fans publicly apologized for the harsh criticism previously expressed against Hargreaves. He temporarily took over jersey number 7 from David Beckham , who had since been retired. He played his last international match on May 28, 2008 in London in a 2-0 victory over the United States .

After football

After his time as a professional footballer, he went to television as a commentator, commenting on football games for BT-Sports .

successes

Awards

In 2001 Owen Hargreaves was awarded the Trofeo Bravo by the Italian magazine "Il Guerin Sportivo" as the best young player in Europe.

In January 2007 he was named England's Footballer of the Year 2006 by the FA . In a poll on the FA website, the midfielder received 29 percent of the vote and prevailed ahead of Steven Gerrard from Liverpool FC (18 percent) and Peter Crouch (15).

Web links

Commons : Owen Hargreaves  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Matthias Arnhold: Owen Lee Hargreaves - Matches and Goals in Bundesliga . Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. January 14, 2016. Retrieved January 20, 2016.
  2. ↑ Article on dailymail .co.uk
  3. ↑ Press release on the Manchester City homepage
  4. ↑ Article on guardian .co.uk
  5. ^ Matthias Arnhold: Owen Lee Hargreaves - International Appearances . Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. December 3, 2015. Retrieved January 12, 2016.
  6. ↑ Article on guardian .co.uk
  7. ↑ http://sport.bt.com/watchnow/ourteam/owen-hargreaves-S11374087621032
personal data
SURNAME Hargreaves, Owen
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hargreaves, Owen Lee (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian football player with an English passport
DATE OF BIRTH January 20, 1981
PLACE OF BIRTH Calgary , Canada