Michael Owen celebrates during THAT night in Munich.
O is for Owen
Saturday, 14 July 2007.
Once England's youngest ever goalscorer and he now has 37 goals in his 82 games. That's why O is for Owen.
Michael Owen, at 18, became the youngest player to score in a full international for England, in a warm-up game against Morocco before the 1998 World Cup in France - until Wayne Rooney broke the record in 2003.
This goal, along with Owen's excellent performances for Liverpool, had put him into the frame for a place in Glenn Hoddle's World Cup squad - having made his debut against Chile just months earlier.
Owen's pace and enthusiasm offered a different option to the qualities offered by the frontline partnership the senior side had at the time of Teddy Sheringham and Alan Shearer.
He came off the bench in the opening two group games and made an immediate impact - especially against Romania, in the second game where he netted an equaliser for England, although the Three Lions went on to lose 2-1.
Despite this result, England won their other two group games and progressed to the second round of the competition where they met Argentina.
It was at this stage that Owen really made a name for himself as, with the game level at 1-1, Owen picked up the ball on the half way line and went on to score a sensational individual goal - skipping past several Argentinean defenders before producing a sublime finish into the top corner.
The goal marked Owen as one of the hottest young stars in world football and he went on to net a goal in each of the next three major competitions he played in with England; scoring against Romania at Euro 2000, Denmark in the 2002 World Cup, and against Portugal in Euro 2004.
Unfortunately a horror injury put pay to his 2006 World Cup campaign before he had really got started in Germany. Owen has enjoyed other memorable England moments, the most notable of which was his fantastic hat-trick in the 5-1 victory over Germany in Munich back in 2001.
Another proud moment was when he was chosen to captain the side for a friendly match against Paraguay in 2002 aged just 22 years and 117 days, becoming the youngest player to skipper the side since World Cup winning captain Bobby Moore.
Michael Owen has so far scored 37 times in 82 appearances for The Three Lions - with 23 goals in competitive action making him England's top competitive scorer. His impressive record puts him fourth in the list of all-time scorers for the national side.
However if he stays clear of injuries, Owen has a great chance of netting the 13 goals he needs to take him to his half-century and move to the top of the goalscoring charts above the legendary Bobby Charlton.