He has scored at Anfield, Wembley Stadium, the Bernabeu and Old Trafford, yet the secret of Michael Owen's mentality came from throwing apples.
The former Liverpool, Manchester United and Real Madrid man's motivation for success and goals was not born out of thousands of hours of practice in the training ground, nor was it by rubbing shoulders with some of the best in the business. Owen, 43, recently said the fearlessness in which he attacked his football career came from when he risked a fierce telling off from his Mum by throwing apples into a bin.
The former striker said he did this in a bid to win some kudos from his dad, who would have been watching the television at the time. Considering the wide variety of backstories explaining an athlete's mentality there are across the sporting landscape, this was certainly one of the more unusual.
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“You know, everything was a challenge,” Owen said to Upfront with Simon Jordan. “You know I would watch an apple while watching the TV at night.
“The bin would be by the TV, six metres away or whatever. I would just do it. I had the bravery to miss and for their to be a stain on the wallpaper and my Mum to absolutely scream at me and send me upstairs.
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“I wasn’t cocky at all, but the next day I would do the same and I’ll be ‘bump’ and it’ll go right in the middle and my Dad would give me a nod of approval. My Mum would be seething, but couldn’t say anything, because it went in.
“That confidence, that sort of daring, that nod of approval that ‘I don’t want to get b******ed by my Mum here’, but I’m desperate for a little wink, a little nod from my Dad, to say 'here you cocky little, you know’. That’s what I always yearned as a kid.”
Whatever it was, it certainly worked as Owen was the last Englishman to win the Ballon d'Or all the way back in 2001. While injuries derailed a huge part of his career, he still managed to muster 223 goals and 59 assists in 483 appearances.
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