Michael Owen has set the record straight on an infamous video involving the former Liverpool striker and Everton legend Neville Southall
Former Liverpool striker Michael Owen appears on TalkSPORT
Former Liverpool striker Michael Owen appears on TalkSPORT
(Image: TalkSPORT)
Michael Owen has set the record straight on an embarrassing video that went viral and has haunted the former Liverpool striker throughout his entire career. The 45-year-old was still a teenager when he released a ‘Soccer Skills’ video tape in 1999.
He had burst into overnight stardom following his iconic goal against Argentina during the 1998 World Cup the year before.
During the video, Owen takes on a 13-year-old goalkeeper, called Jamie Hutchinson, in a one-vs-one challenge at Stoke City’s empty bet365 Stadium with the shot-stopper being coached by Everton legend Neville Southall. And with the then Liverpool striker celebrating enthusiastically as he wheeled away after scoring one goal, shouting, ‘Get in there!’, the video is best remembered for Southall’s iconic putdown as he infamously scolded Owen by saying: “Well done, he’s 13.”
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It is now 26 years since the Michael Owen Soccer Skills video was first released, with the aforementioned clip later going viral and continuing to earn the forward plenty of ridicule over the past two decades.
But Owen has now broken his silence on the viral video as he revealed the truth behind his celebrations and Southall’s subsequent reaction, insisting all was not as it seemed.
"I was only a couple of years older than him myself!” he pointed out on TalkSPORT. “It's probably funny now.
“It’s simple, I got back from the World Cup in ‘98 and there were obviously loads of commercial opportunities, things like that.
“I was asked to do a soccer skills video and a soccer skills book. So I had to explain, talk through, finishing, volleying, heading, whatever the skill was.
“And you inevitably need a goalkeeper there. I never picked them. I turned up to do the show and to talk through how I see scoring a goal and what I think in certain scenarios and whatever.
“There was a kid in goal that I had to score past and when I scored, you know, they're like, ‘Come on, no, you need to show a bit more animation!’
“‘Like celebrate when you score, this is going on a video. People are going to be buying this!’
"But people just laugh at you no matter what, don’t they. They take a little extract of anything. There's loads of things like that on the internet on me.”