Throughout his career, Michael Owen (46) played 571 matches, scored 262 goals - 150 in the Premier League alone - and was the second youngest player in history to win the Ballon d'Or in 2001 at the age of 21, only behind Cristiano Ronaldo (41). In the collective memory of millions of fans, he is remembered as one of the most lethal teenage prodigies in the history of modern football.
Before serious injuries robbed him of his acceleration, his terrifying speed, low center of gravity, and clinical finishing ability made him virtually unstoppable in one-on-one situations.
His resume includes the following teams: Liverpool FC (1996-2004), Real Madrid (2004-2005), Newcastle United (2005-2009), Manchester United (2009-2012), and Stoke City (2012-2013). In March 2013, he hung up his boots. British media estimate his fortune at around 60 million euros, not surprising considering that at the peak of his career, he earned almost 130,000 euros weekly.
At the age of six, Michael began to show signs of a natural ability to play football, something his father, also a player in the lower leagues of Chester City, Rochdale, and Cambridge United, among others, immediately noticed. "My motivation was to please my father," he said years ago in an interview, and although it may sound forced, the truth is that he cherishes memories of a happy childhood and adolescence.
"One of the most important roles of any parent is to create an environment in which their children can fully develop. My parents did just that," he has stated on several occasions. He has passed on this broad-mindedness to his own family, as his four children have chosen the appropriate environment to thrive.
With Louise Bonsall (46), whom he studied with in primary school where they forged a beautiful friendship that turned into a romantic relationship when they were 17, he has formed a lovely family with their children Gemma (23), James (20), Emily (18), and Jessica (16). The family bond is unbreakable, but at the beginning of September, he surprised when he declared on the Great Company podcast that "I never tell my children that I love them. I just assume that my actions will show that I love them. It's a bad thing. I think most of us are like that."
To better understand this family, one only needs to watch the six-episode reality show Meet the Owens on Amazon Prime since August 28, where cameras immortalized their daily lives while Michael successfully runs Hugo Palmer Manor House Stables with his partner, a former dairy farm of almost 70 hectares in Cheshire county (England) that he turned into a horse stable in 2007 and seven years later began his new role as a horse breeder. Currently, he owns 135 thoroughbreds and has nearly 50 people under his supervision.
The Owens live in a Grade II listed Elizabethan mansion worth almost 5 million euros inFlintshire (Wales). The residence is set on 17 hectares of land with stables, two cottages, two apartments, three greenhouses, a mini-golf course, a mini-football field, a heated indoor swimming pool, and a large children's play area.
The episodes cover professional topics such as buying several horses at an auction for over 300,000 euros and personal issues like his daughter Emily leaving home to study sports psychology at university, making her the first Owens to attend such an institution; James's struggle with a degenerative eye disease called Stargardt's disease; how lonely Louis felt when Michael signed for Real Madrid as they spent a long time in a hotel while looking for a house that suited their needs with a young daughter. "I felt a lot of empathy for both," the former athlete states on Substack, and how peculiar he is when it comes to spending money. Louise has told the Daily Mail that her husband "won't think twice about spending money on a horse, but if the kids leave a light on in the house... Or if I want to redecorate the bathroom because the paint is peeling off the walls, he'll say something like, 'Is that really necessary?'
In Substack, Michael has stated that "people may have seen me as boring and bitter for years. But we are a normal family. Sometimes you are looked at as if you have two heads because you were good at football, but there are many unsung heroes doing amazing things every day. It just so happens that what I'm good at is a sport that everyone likes, so fame, fortune, and everything else come included."
Gemma explained to Radio Times that when filming, they decided it should be "natural" because "we are a very close-knit family. I am very family-oriented, and Manor House Stables is an important part of it. So it felt natural. As the series progresses, my involvement in Manor House develops as I prepare for the Magnolia Cup, so it felt right.