Posts Tagged ‘Michael Owen’

In my country, soccer is the most famous sport and because almost everybody loves soccer, i thought it would be nice to make a list with every major soccer transfer of 2009. As you can see the list is divided per team:

Number Name Player Value Old team New team

1. Cristiano Ronaldo for € 94.000.000 from Manchester United to Real Madrid 2. Ricardo Káka for € 65.000.000 from AC Milan to Real Madrid 3. Xabi Alonso for € 35.000.000 from Liverpool to Real Madrid 4. Karim Benzema for € 35.000.000 from Lyon to Real Madrid 5. Alvaro Arbeloa for € 4.000.000 from Liverpool to Real Madrid 6. Raúl Albiol for € 15.000.000 from Valencia to Real Madrid 7. Zlatan Ibrahimovic for € 35.000.000 (+ Samuel Eto’o + Aleksandr Hleb on loan) from Inter Milan  to Barcelona 8. Maxwell for € 4.500.000 from Inter to Barcelona 9. Carneiro Keirrison for € 14.000.000 from Palmeiras to Barcelona 10. Diego Milito for Unkown fee + Robert Acquafresca from Genoa to Inter Milan 11. Thiago Motta for Unkown fee + Robert Acquafresca from Genoa to Inter Milan 12. Yuri Zhirkov for € 21.000.000 from CSKA Moscow to Chelsea 13. Glen Johnson for € 21.000.000 from Portsmouth to Liverpool 14. David N’Gog for € 2.000.000 from PSG to Liverpool 15. Michael Owen for Free from Newcastle to Manchester United 16. Gabriel Obertan for € 3.000.000 from Bordeaux to Manchester United 17. Carlos Tevez for € 29.000.000 from Manchester United to Manchester City 18. Gareth Barry for € 14.000.000 from Aston Villa to Manchester City 19. Roque Santa Cruz for € 21.000.000 from Blackburn Rovers to Manchester City 20. Emmanuel Adebayor for 29.000.000 from Arsenal to Manchester City 21. Thomas Vermaelen for € 12.000.000 from Ajax to Arsenal 22. Fabio Cannavaro for Free from Real Madrid to Juventus 23. Diego for € 24.500.000 from Werder Bremen to Juventus 24. Felipe Melo for € 25.000.000 from Fiorentina to Juventus 25. Mario Gomez for € 30.000.000 from VfB Stuttgart to Bayern München 26. Ivica Olic for Free from Hamburg SV to Bayern München 27. Miguel Moya for € 6.000.000 from Mallorca to Valencia 28. Oguchi Onyewu for free from Standard Liège to AC Milan 29. Klaas-Jan Huntelaar for € 15.000.000 from Real Madrid to AC Milan

So this is the list I have so far. As you can see, Real Madrid have bought the biggest names and have spend the most money. The most money spend for one player is € 94.000.000 for Cristiano Ronaldo, but many of you knew that already.

Personally I don’t think that buying the biggest names, will make you the biggest or best team in the world. You will need to have a team that does everything for each other. If that particular team has great players and they stick on each other like gluw, they will most likely be the best team in the world. If you have three or four players that aren’t teamplayers, the manager will have a lot of trouble to have any major trophy with that particular squad. Why do I mention this? Well, you see it every year. Each team buys at least 3 or 4 players. The biggest teams in the world buy the most famous players for a fee that’s not normal anymore. But what happents? They don’t play that good. Everybody thinks you (that particular team) will defeat everybody on the road, but nothing is less true.

I think well known manager should keep in mind: players that are not that famous and especially young players will try to make thier dream come true, therefore they will give at least 110%. The players that already made it, will probably give 80%. See the difference?

I just thought I should mention this . Back to the list now. If you have more “big names”-transfers that need to be added to the list, just wright in a comment and I will add it as soon as possible.

Here is a small list of players that probably make a move by the start of the new season:

Vincent Kompany to Barcelona? Sergio Agüero to Manchester United? Franck Ribery to Chelsea? Andrea Pirlo to Chelsea? Alberto Aquilano to Liverpool? Sneijder to Inter?

So this is it for now. Keep in mind, if you have more news about transfers, just post it in a comment and let me know. I will add it to the list as soon as possible. If you want to read more soccer news you can read about it here.

Amid the financial insanity taking place on the east side of Manchester (have you seen the wages these people are getting?), a 29 year-old signed for Manchester United on July 3rd. A 29 year-old Englishman…

A 29 year-old Englishman called Michael Owen.

Did you see that one coming? I definitely didn’t. 8 years ago, as he single-handedly robbed Arsenal of FA Cup glory and helped Liverpool to a cup treble, the thought of him ever joining his Northwest rivals seemed as likely as Prince Harry serving you in McDonalds. Yet, here we are in pre-season and Owen has scored on his debut wearing the number 7 of Manchester United. I’m going to try and delve into the thinking of Sir Alex Ferguson and look at the potential for the ‘Boy Wonder’ in the current United set-up.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s sale £80m sale to Real Madrid should have automatically put United onto the frontline in the summer transfer war – especially when you consider that the money was paid in one lump sum up front. However, United seem to be playing a different game this summer, possibly bitten by the poor form of Berbatov after his £30M move last august. Ferguson knows better than anyone that big money doesn’t guarantee success (Is it too cruel to mention Juan Sebastian Veron? Oh dear, too late….) and also knows the benefit of purchasing elder statesman (Cantona, Sheringham, and Larsson). But ‘injury prone’ Michael Owen? Surely a team of United’s stature should be looking above and beyond this type of capture. Surely Owen was destined to join Hull City or perhaps Everton. Surely United would swoop to capture Ribery or Benzema. Evidently not. Scratch at the surface though and it this bizarre piece of business has the potential to be a masterstroke…

It’s no secret that United have built their entire side around Ronaldo for the past three seasons and incredibly for a winger-cum-striker he was never injured. As a result, the rest of the team lived to serve him. His responsibility was huge; Penalties and free kicks were all under his control and he was the ‘go to’ man whenever United needed a winner. Its success was huge, Ronaldo scored 66 league goals as United were crowned Premier League champions 3 seasons running. Away from Ronaldo though, goals were not as plentiful as the Old Trafford faithful have come to expect and a lot of their success was down to their defensive strength and the emergence of Vidic as one of the best centre-backs in the world. However, it was always a case of when, not if, Ronaldo would up-sticks and make the move to Madrid.

Ferguson knows that it is now time for other players to shoulder the responsibility relinquished by Ronaldo and for Owen to benefit from the end product. The fluid formation used to get the best from Ronaldo (it can be argued that Man Utd have played without a striker for at least 2 years) would need to be discarded. Avid Spurs fans will tell you that Berbatov was in his element dropping deep and looking for runners ahead of him. The problem at United last season was that when he dropped deep, he often had the company of his team mates around or behind him – not ahead. The mere presence of Owen on the field suddenly makes Berbatov a more dangerous proposition and gives Owen the type of service he craved at Newcastle United.

Ronaldo’s departure also gives Wayne Rooney the opportunity to step up too. Ronaldo’s stellar form has undoubtedly pushed the great talent of English football to the periphery of the newspaper headlines in the past couple of years, yet seasoned viewers at Old Trafford will tell you of a player who has matured but yet still has that incredibly aggressive spark and a huge talent for the game. It seems Ferguson’s lack of transfer activity could be because he believes he already has the replacements bedded in at Old Trafford and that Michael Owen is there to apply the finishing touch.

So will Owen be a success? Only time will tell, but as a piece of business it looks risk-free and Ferguson knows that at the very least he has players around him desperate to prove themselves good enough. I’m predicting goals galore at Old Trafford this season and fully expect them to be the league’s top scorers in May 2010.

To know more and on sports pools online visit sportspoolsonline.com

In one of the more bizarre debut matches, Ronaldo (who signed to Real Madrid from Manchester United in a record £80 million deal this summer) stepped out on the pitch to play a friendly match against part-timers Shamrock Rovers. Real Madrid, who have been over in Dublin training this week, nearly came a cropper beating Rovers by 1-0 in the dying minutes of the match.Ronaldo, in his custom made Nike Mercurial football boots, played 45 minutes of the match and was, at times,  subjected to boos and taunts of “Who are ya?” from elements in the crowd (Ireland has a large contingent of Manchester United supporters). His best chance came from a free kick that he sliced wide of the goal.Meanwhile, back at his old club, manager Alex Ferguson had nothing but praise for his former striker, even hinting at a possible return in the future,“I have nothing but praise for the boy. He is easily the best player in the world.” Said Ferguson, “He is better than Kaka and better than Messi. He is streets ahead of them all.”Ferguson went on to add,”He may come back, you never know … Sometimes it happens that way.”Meanwhile, new Manchester United signing Michael Owen opened his score sheet for his new club with an 84th minute goal to secure a pre-season win over a Malaysia XI in Kuala Lumpur.