On His Owen
‘READING the Times this morning you can imagine Michael Owen jumping up and down on the spot screaming ”Look at me! I’m over here!” in a bid to gain attention.
 |
| ”And I want to live in…Milan” |
Last night the boy wonder – he’s still just 23 – celebrated winning his 50th England cap with a fine display of running and scoring, that brought him two goals and England a 2-1 over Slovakia.
And the Times leads its review with: ”England back on course after Owen mends it like Beckham.”
Yes, the poor lad who worked so hard last night is still forced to share the headlines with a player who never even took to the pitch.
Even when Beckham isn’t there he remains an integral part of English success.
Inside the paper, Simon Barnes says that the ”ghost” of England’s absent captain is ”omnipresent”, going as far as to award the man-of-the-match award to the Beckham one.
”He was, after all, the most conspicuous player on display at the Riverside Stadium last night, and effortlessly the most talked about,” he gushes.
Only he wasn’t – not if you really watch England play and are a football fan rather than a Beckham worshipper.
Thankfully, such trite nonsense is missing from the Telegraph, where Owen is rightly seen as England’s lone saviour. ”Owen rescues England,” says the bold headline.
The Guardian even manages to look beyond just England and tell its readers that Ireland beat Georgia last night by two goals to nil and that a plucky Northern Irish side that have lost about 2,000 games on the trot have drawn 0-0 with Spain.
”Unbelievable” is the world the paper uses to begin its review of the Northern Irish game.
Incredible might be just as apt, especially when we learn that Ireland are ranked 111th in the Fifa ranking, while Spain are joint second with France.
But now to the most important story in sport, and the most important question: where does Victoria Beckham want to live?
The Independent lines up the brochures – Manchester, Barcelona, Madrid and Milan – and take us through the plusses and minuses for each.
And the winner is…Milan. Well, the winner for us, because the verdict is that she’d be too busy shopping to relaunch her signing career.
‘
Posted: 12th, June 2003 | In: Back pages Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
