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PICTURES |
PROFILE |
BIOGRAPHY |
AWARDS |
QUOTES |
LINKS |
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MICHAEL OWEN AND NEWCASTLE UNITED |
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 On August 24, 2005, Newcastle United
announced that they had agreed a club record fee of £17 million
with Madrid for Owen, although they still had to negotiate with
the player's advisers. [1]. However, Owen claimed that he would
only be willing to spend a year on loan to them. This came just
a day after Everton, traditional rivals of Owen's beloved
Liverpool, had a bid for the player turned down by the Spanish
club.
On August 31, 2005 Owen finally signed a four-year contract to
play for Newcastle United, despite initial press speculation
that he would rather have returned to Liverpool. Roughly
20,000 fans were present at Newcastle's home ground of St James'
Park for Owen's official unveiling as a Newcastle player. He scored his first goal for the club on his second appearance, the
middle goal in a 3-0 away win at Blackburn Rovers on September
18 – Newcastle's first win of the season. Owen scored his first
hat-trick for Newcastle in the 4-2away win over West Ham United
on December 17. It was also a 'perfect hat trick', (meaning he
scored with his left foot, right foot, and head).
On December 31, 2005, Owen broke a metatarsal bone in his foot
in a match against Tottenham Hotspur. He underwent a successful
surgery to place a pin in the bone, to help speed the healing
process. On March 24 he underwent a second, minor, operation,
and is now expected to return to playing some time in late April,
he has confirmed that he will be back before the FIFA World Cup
2006, and has set him self a target of playing two more games
before the end of the season. |
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