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#9 Owen Hargreaves
The story of Owen Hargreaves really is one of modern football’s great tragedies. Clearly an absolutely phenomenal footballer, the Canadian-born English midfielder was cruelly plagued by injuries to the point that he retired at the age of just 31.
Despite the English media and the majority of England fans often lambasting Hargreaves – then at FC Bayern – for his performances for the Three Lions under then-manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, the energetic star would go on to become a pivotal part of the England team and mark himself out as one of the best ball-winning players of his generation. Not only that, Hargreaves was technically superb, was extremely versatile, and could run for days and days. And so, it was no surprise when Sir Alex Ferguson brought him to Old Trafford in 2007.
Back then, the £17 million transfer of Hargreaves was actually meant to happen the previous year – in the aftermath of Hargreaves’ breathtaking 2006 World Cup performances – but the player suffered an unfortunate leg break. In hindsight, that injury looked to be the start of the end for Hargreaves, and by the time all was said and done at Manchester United, he had become a shell of his former self.
To put some perspective on just how badly his time at Old Trafford was affected by injury, Hargreaves made a total of 39 appearances for the Red Devils over four seasons – with 34 of those appearances coming in his very first season! When fit during that first year, Owen Hargreaves was as great as he’d ever been. It’s just such a shame that injuries were soon to take their toll, with his United contract eventually allowed to run out in 2011 and a forced retirement around the corner in 2012.
