Journalist

Situated adjacent to Darling Harbour Island, the deep blue water is motionless, making it a perfect spot for fishermen as the sun sets behind Sydney’s cityscape, a picturesque view for the occasion. A sea of fans congregate outside, proudly sporting countless blazing red Liverpool shirts, as they patiently wait to meet their hero. For me, my exclusive interview with Michael Owen, one of the all-time greats in football, is in striking distance. https://youtu.be/-QbxJn1vOqY From the jump, the two-time Premier League Golden Boot winner at age 17 and 18 had a down-to-earth, warm demeanour and a welcoming smile despite arriving at the UK at the crack of dawn that day. As an aspiring sports journalist with an insatiable passion for football, having played and analysed the game since the age of six; Michael Owen was generous with his time as he shared the highs and lows of his career including a short stint on a reality TV show in Britain called the Masked Singer and some insights and tips on gaining people’s confidence and trust. Daisy Ward and Michael Owen Credit for picture of Michael Owen: Shutterstock “First impressions are very important,” he said at Evening With Michael Owen at Doltone House, staged by Paradigm at the first leg of his national tour in Australia. “Personally, if you’re going to interview someone the best technique is to almost go in quite softly and gain somebody’s trust. If you were interviewing me and you straight away said ‘Why did you go from Liverpool to Manchester United?’, my guard is now up. “Now I’m possibly going to be a little bit more spiky or short with you. So, I think even though you might have to ask difficult question at some point, almost try to warm them up, reel them in a little bit and then hit them at the end. “We all have a first impression of somebody, and if that first impression is not a good one, then I think you’ll struggle to get what you want out of the interview.” Robyn Foyster, Michael Owen and Daisy Ward Next, I broach the thorny issue of sports injuries and mental health, asking how Michael, dealt with this, particularly, after suffering a hamstring tear at just 19 when he was at his peak. “See, this is perfect,” Michael teased, smiling encouragingly. “We did a positive and now we are on a negative!” “Yes sorry, bit of a downer!," I cheekily reply. “But how did it affect your mental health and how did you get yourself back up?” “Yeah, injuries are the hardest thing in football. There’s certain injuries you can come back from quickly and as good as new, but certain injuries, they kill you really, and you almost come back and you’re not as good as you were. And I had a lot of muscle injuries that basically robbed me of my pace. Michael Owen Discusses Overcoming The Mental Toll Of Sports Injuries “It’s very difficult because, as you say, your body is hurting, but your mind is hurting as well. And I got to a stage where I was at the end of my career, and I couldn’t wait to retire. Football was no longer fun for me. Because fun for me was being able to run past players and score goals and being better than everyone else, and now I wasn’t as good as I was. “So from a mental point of view, that was quite hard to take. I wanted to retire quite early, and I probably did at 33. So yeah, that’s hard, that’s a challenge but I don’t know what else there is. There’s no secret. I can’t be given a new pair of legs to run again, so you’ve just got to get on with it. But no, it was mentally more so than physically at the end.” It's a raw and honest reflection on what goes on off the pitch without the glare of publicity, and intense scrutiny of the nation from the man whom the country incessantly pinned their hopes on. Once he came to the realisation that playing football had become just a job, Michael explained that he knew it was time to hang up his boots. Shortly after retiring, he quickly transitioned into a football pundit and his passion for racehorse breeding. To this day, his incredible achievements as a young player have never been replicated, nor has anyone come close to the two golden boots and the Ballon D’Or triumphs as a mere teenager. Interestingly one of the gold nuggets he revealed during his interview with former Australian and Manchester United goalkeeper Mark Bosnich was that he had never even heard of the Ballon D’Or when he first discovered he was the winning recipient. https://www.youtube.com/watch?vN8WFP-LOQZ4 Back then, he explained that it was a widely overlooked award in Britain, and it was not until he was poached to Real Madrid that he even realised the enormity of what he’d won. Looking to the future of football today, what English player did Michael Owen believe has the ability to win the ultimate prize in football for an individual player? “If you look at the reasons you will win the Ballon D’Or: one, your team, whether it’s internationally or the club team, has got to be successful,” explains Michael. “So you’ve got to be in a pretty good team, and then you’ve got to be the shining star in that team, of course. You need two things to tango. We won loads of trophies for Liverpool, I think I scored 28 goals that season, but I also had a good season for England, scoring a hattrick in Germany and different goals as well. “Looking at our team now, looking at the English players, you’ve got Jude Bellingham. He’s at Real Madrid. He could win the La Liga. He could win the Champions League. It’s not a World Cup this year, it’s next year. So you’re going to have to be really good for your domestic team. So then you’re going to look at Mo Salah who is one of the best players in the world, but Liverpool are only going to win the Premier League. They’ve been knocked out early in the Champion League so that's going to harm his chances. “It's going to be a Madrid player, i.e., Bellingham, but if Mbappe scores or Vinicius Junior, then it's not going to be Bellingham. But I think people like Phil Foden, he's very talented at Man City, Bellingham, Harry Kane if Bayern Munich do well, and they win the league as well, he's got a chance. In terms of ability, I'd say probably the most likely is going to be Bellingham.” To conclude the interview, I wanted to discuss something slightly more niche, a topic that no Australian interviewer, let alone any sports journalist, would come up with. Only Aunt Debby, slumped on her armchair on a Saturday evening watching ITV’s The Masked Singer, would have asked Michael this question. https://www.youtube.com/watch?vqksjRQksqc8 I dived in just the same! “Just to end on a light-hearted note, a while ago, I watched you on TV, on the Masked Singer dressed up as a donut. What made you go on it, and did you get to choose the outfit?!” “What made me go on that?” Michael chuckled. “Well, when the offer first came in, I said, ‘No way’. I’ll be honest with you, it was a lot of money. And I just thought, I can't say no to that. The last thing I want to do is sing. But it was a lot of money, so I thought, go on, I might as well do it. “In terms of the costume, I got given three options, bagpipes, there was a little gnome with a fishing rod and there was a doughnut, and I picked the doughnuts. I think I only got far in the competition because people liked my outfit as opposed to what they were hearing, because I'm the worst singer in the world!” Gently consoling him, I told him I thought he could carry a tune! “But if you notice," he gestured back. "The songs that were chosen were all sort of fan engagement type of songs, so people love singing along with them and they weren't going to expose my voice, because it's a crap voice. So yeah, I enjoyed it.” Again, I proffered 'it looked like fun…' “It was quite good fun, till I had to take my mask off and then sing without my mask on. That was nerve-racking!” And with that, Michael was whisked off to his eagerly awaiting fans where he held court to the crowd and patiently posed for photos. The Carousel would like to thank Michael Owen and the team at Paradigm Entertainment in Perth, WA, and Max Markson for this interview

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