The ‘golden generation’ of England is currently in Italy getting ready for the European Championship, where many in the media are strongly betting them to win the nation’s first major prize since the 1966 World Cup.
Michael Owen is getting ready to lead the England line in the opening match against France, six years after making his mark at the 1998 World Cup with the goal against Argentina in Saint-Etienne.
Manager Sven Goran Eriksson is putting Owen and other prominent Three Lions players, like as Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, and Paul Scholes, through their paces.
Wayne Rooney, an 18-year-old Liverpool player, is also present on the field.
Six years prior, at the age of 18, Owen was a member of the England team getting ready for his first major competition, the France 1998 World Cup. This was following a breakthrough season in which he had won the Premier League’s golden boot.
However, as Owen describes in the recently released Sport show Rooney 2004: World at his Feet, it became evident that being a prodigy wasn’t the only way to play the part.