Michael Owen scored just 10 times in 32 matches with Newcastle this past season. (Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)Michael Owen has joined English champion Manchester United, a striking reversal of fortunes for an injury-plagued striker who had been consigned to the England scrap heap by Fabio Capello.
Owen, 29, signed a two-year contract Friday. The former Liverpool and Real Madrid player was a free agent after his contract expired Tuesday at recently relegated Newcastle.
"Michael is a world class forward with a proven goal-scoring record at the highest level and that has never been in question," said manager Sir Alex Ferguson. "Coming to Manchester United with the expectations that we have is something that Michael will relish."
Though the likes of Wigan and Bolton had dismissed Owen as past his best, Ferguson is willing to take — as United's official website says — a "calculated gamble."
Out of contract at recently relegated Newcastle, Owen's advisers had been forced to promote himself in a 32-page dossier speculatively sent to clubs around Europe.
Owen spent Friday at the Premier League champion's Carrington training complex and a Manchester hospital for final medical examinations on his troublesome right knee.
Ferguson needs a proven goal-scorer to replace Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez, who both left United last month.
And despite being British soccer's most successful manager, Ferguson has struggled to attract top-class talent after United was humbled by Barcelona in the Champions League final loss in May. The 67-year-old Scot has been snubbed by Karim Benzema, who opted to leave Lyon to join Ronaldo and Kaka at Madrid, and by Franck Ribery, who is set to stay at Bayern Munich.
With no transfer fee, Owen comes cheap. United is believed to have offered the free agent a modest salary that is unlikely to reach the $208,750 he was receiving each week at Newcastle. However, that could rise if he can rediscover his formerly rich scoring form.
Goals, though, were lacking at Newcastle, with Owen scoring just 10 times in 32 matches as the northeast club was relegated to the League Championship in May.
He featured in just 79 matches, scoring 30 goals in the four seasons since the Magpies paid a club-record $30.4 million in 2005 from Real Madrid.
His Newcastle fortunes waned as his roll call of injuries lengthened — groin, calf, ankle, thigh, hernia, metatarsal and knee ligament to date. And so did an England career that had begun with such devastating style in 1998 when the 18-year-old Owen dazzled the globe with a superb solo goal against Argentina at the World Cup.
But since featuring in a friendly 15 months ago against France and later picking up a calf strain, the striker has not earned a 90th appearance for England.
Joining United may not only resurrect his club career, but give him a chance of playing at a fourth World Cup as he would be reunited with Capello's first-choice forward Wayne Rooney at Old Trafford.
Owen is the only player to score for England in four major tournaments, and he also played in a fifth, the 2006 World Cup in Germany, but he damaged knee ligaments early in a group game against Sweden.
Owen's recent woes have overshadowed a once flourishing career. When still feared by opponents, his goals helped Liverpool win two League Cups, an FA Cup and a UEFA Cup between 2001 and '03.
Since he left Anfield for Real Madrid in 2004, however, he has won nothing.
