{"id":51167,"date":"2025-09-08T17:10:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T17:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/51167\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T17:10:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T17:10:10","slug":"i-think-his-comments-are-fair-wayne-rooney-responds-to-michael-owen-in-debate-over-who-was-better-player-at-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/51167\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I think his comments are fair\u2019 \u2013 Wayne Rooney responds to Michael Owen in debate over who was better player at 17"},"content":{"rendered":"

Owen burst on to the scene as a precocious teenager with Liverpool in the late 1990s before Rooney did likewise at Everton a few years later.<\/p>\n

Rooney went on to have the more successful career overall of the two forwards, but Owen \u2013 in a debate prompted in a recent interview with Rio Ferdinand \u2013 feels his achievements in their initial years were greater.<\/p>\n

\"Owen<\/p>\n

Owen made a stunning impact as a teenager at Liverpool (Nick Potts\/PA)<\/p>\n

Owen, who won the Ballon d\u2019Or when he was 22, wrote on X: \u201cAt 17 I scored 18 PL goals (winning the Golden Boot), Wazza scored 6. At 18 I again scored 18 goals (again winning the Golden Boot and coming 4th in The Ballon d\u2019Or), Wazza scored 9.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our opening 7 seasons, Wazza didn\u2019t outscore me once (117 goals v 80). In which time I became the 2nd youngest Ballon d\u2019Or winner ever.<\/p>\n

\u201cInjuries hindered me from then on while he sustained his level. Therefore, he\u2019ll go down as a better player than me. But, at 17, please\u2026\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Owen, 45, scored 222 goals in a 482-game club career which also included spells at Real Madrid, Newcastle, Manchester United and Stoke before retiring at 32 as injuries took their toll. He also scored 40 goals for England.<\/p>\n

Rooney, now 39, moved to United at 18 and went on to become their record goalscorer with 253, winning five Premier League titles and the Champions League along the way. He also netted a then-record 53 times for England.<\/p>\n

\"Rooney<\/p>\n

Rooney boasted the greater return over a full career (Martin Rickett\/PA)<\/p>\n

Rooney, speaking on his own The Wayne Rooney Show, said: \u201cMe and Michael were very different players, different attributes.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichael Owen at 17, 18 was incredible. I used to go out on the streets and pretend to be him, I\u2019d pretend to be Michael Owen, even though he played for Liverpool!<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, he did get his injuries and he probably couldn\u2019t adapt his game maybe as well as I could.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think his comments are fair. Of course, he\u2019s going to back himself. I\u2019d back myself.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, I\u2019d never judge myself against Michael Owen because he\u2019s someone I actually looked up to and had the pleasure of playing alongside.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Owen burst on to the scene as a precocious teenager with Liverpool in the late 1990s before Rooney…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[18,8255,19,17,1534,20,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-51167","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-everton","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-liverpool-football-club","13":"tag-manchester-united","14":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}