10 Man Utd Players Who Did Nothing For Club (But Excelled For Their Country)

4. Michael Owen

As free agents go, was Michael Owen the worst? A winner in a Manchester derby, a hat-trick in Wolfsburg and a goal in the Carling Cup final - it€™s not a bad highlights reel for a player who arrived at the club with zero expectations, but that would be the sum total of them. The man scored five Premier Leagues in 31 outings for the Red Devils, and was granted just one league appearance for the club in his final season at Old Trafford. It may not have been the worst contribution, but for a player with an international record such as his, it was an ignominious way to wind down a career - desperately clambering for appearances from the bench for a club he surely grew up detesting. Were it not for some poor career decisions and some unlucky injuries, it could have been Owen and not Wayne Rooney destined to overtake Bobby Charlton as England€™s all-time top goalscorer. Having performed well for Liverpool during the season, the World Cup in 1998 was life-changing for the 18 year old. Not only did he become England€™s youngest ever player at a World Cup when he came off the bench in the opening match against Tunisia, but he even became his country€™s youngest ever goalscorer with a goal against Romania in the next game. In the second round, he announced himself to the world as a star with a sensational virtuoso equaliser, leaving half the Argentinian defence trailing in his wake. Owen would spend much of the next decade as England€™s senior striker, with highlights including a hat-trick against Munich during a 2002 World Cup qualifier, standing in for David Beckham as captain in April 2002, and of course, his plethora of international goals. During his decade donning the crest of the Three Lions, which included five international tournaments, Owen bagged an impressive 40 goals in 89 appearances, placing him fifth in the list of all-time top scorers for the England team. With Bobby Charlton just nine goals ahead of him at the summit, it will probably be one of Owen€™s pangs of regret when he is old and grey, that his injuries prevented him from realising his true potential and overtaking the former Man United captain.