"Michael Owen latches on to a through ball. He is too quick for the defender. He is through on goal. It's Owen...it's a goal!
For those who had the privilege of watching Owen terrorise defences during his heydays for Liverpool and England, hearing these words was commonplace.
At full flight, Owen was quite literally uncatchable, putting on the after-burners and scorching away from his markers time and again. The sight of a 19-year-old Owen leaving the Argentina defence trailing his wake to score a wonder goal remains one of the abiding images of the 1998 FIFA World Cup.
Fast forward 13 years later and the diminutive striker is a shadow of his former self, plagued by injuries and contenting himself with Cup scraps on the few matchdays when he's actually fit. Despite having suffered from a dodgy hamstring throughout his career though, his journey has seen him play for some of the biggest clubs in world football - Liverpool, Real Madrid, Newcastle and finally the controversial switch to Manchester United.
And wherever he has gone, the goals have followed. The numbers don't lie. The 31-year-old remains the Premier League's fifth all-time goalscorer with 149 goals and England's fourth leading scorer of all time, with 40 strikes.
Touted as one of the best finishers England have ever produced, Owen seemed destined for stardom from an early age.
Footballing prodigy
When Terry Owen gave his son his first football, he knew right away young Michael was different. After watching him kick the ball around at home, he turned to his wife saying:"Jeanette, I think we've got something special here."
The rest, as they say, is history.
His goalscoring prowess first came to light at a tender age of seven, where he scored an incredible 34 goals in 24 starts in his first season for Mold Alexandra School Under-10s team.
Owen's first ever coach Howard Roberts reminisced about one of his earliest performances, recalling to football magazine Four Four Two: "In one match, he scored nine goals. And that was in the first 20 minutes"
It was his exploits at Deeside Primary that stunned onlookers. In two seasons in Deeside's Under-11s team, Owen scored 97 goals, smashing the schoolboy record held by a certain Ian Rush by 20 goals. He would continue to follow in the Anfield legend's footsteps, signing for Liverpool when he was merely 16 and making his first team debut at 18.
Pride of Liverpool and England
Owen's emergence came in the midst of a barren era for Liverpool. For a club long used to success, and lots of it, the youngster was one of the few sources of joy as Manchester United and Arsenal began to jostle for top-spot in the Premier League.
When he first announced his arrival in the top-flight stage with a coolly taken penalty on his debut against Wimbledon in 1997, the fans knew they are witnessing the 'next big thing'. Owen then took the Premier League by storm in his first full season.
He was expected to be a back-up for Robbie Fowler and Karl Heinz Riedle, who was brought in to replace Stan Collymore. But he made it an almost impossible task for manager Roy Evans to not pick him ahead of Riedle with his sizzling performances and goals - 18 in total for that season.
With his popularity around the country on the rise, it seemed a matter of time before England came knocking on his door. Owen went on to beat Duncan Edwards' record of being the youngest player to play for England this century when he took the field in a 2-0 friendly loss to Chile at 18 years and 59 days of age. He also became the youngest English player to score, netting in a pre-World Cup friendly against Morocco.
But nothing can quite compare to what he did in the 1998 World Cup. Millions around the world were swept off their feet when Owen, in his oversized No.20 England shirt, scored one of the best World Cup goals against Argentina in the second-round.
He was the darling of England, Liverpool and world football - a fact that he realized when he returned home.
"We had been isolated in France so I didn't know how big I had become. It was only when I got back from Luton Airport to find hundreds of photographers outside my house in the early hours that it sunk in," he told The Independent.
The hamstring
When the burst of speed is everything to a player like Owen, the most crucial and fragile part of his body had to be his hamstring.
With Owen's searing pace in their armory, Liverpool's game revolved around feeding him with through passes and long balls. That means he was constantly moving from static positions to full speed in a matter of split seconds. It eventually proved too much for his hamstring to handle.
The sight of Owen crumbling following a well-rehearsed through pass by Steve McMananman in the 1999 league game against Leeds United still pains those supporters who saw it happen.
It was the first of many such injuries that would dog him through his stints at Real Madrid, Newcastle and currently at Manchester United.
Hero to villain
As if leaving Liverpool in the lurch near the end of his contract by joining Madrid for a meager £8million in 2004 wasn't hurting enough for the fans, Owen committed the ultimate 'sin' of joining United from Newcastle in 2009.
With one stroke of a pen, he turned from Liverpool legend to an outcast by accepting an offer by Sir Alex Ferguson to join the United ranks - even though there have been calls for fans to understand his situation given his dwindling career at St James Park.
Jamie Carragher was among the sympathizers, saying: "He left in difficult circumstances, but when he went to Manchester United, his career was on a bit of a downward spiral and he'll admit that himself.
"So the chance to go to one of the biggest clubs in the world was difficult to turn down. He moved and upset some people, but he had to do what was right for himself and his family."
But on Owen's return to Anfield for Carragher's testimonial match in September last year, the fans expectedly made their feelings known, booing him whenever he touched the ball. It proves that no matter how many goals you scored at Anfield, the 'sin' of joining United is simply unforgivable in that part of Merseyside.
Legend, model professional
At just 1.73m and with a diminutive physique that is hardly suited for the modern game, nobody would have dared put money on Owen achieving what he did in his career.
But not only did the Englishman rise above his physical disadvantage, he actually made himself into one of the lethal strikers the English game has ever seen.
Able to finish with both feet and incredibly competent in the air in spite of his aerial disadvantage, Owen is arguably one of the most complete strikers in modern day football - backed up by his incredible 221 career goals in 473 games. That's nearly a goal every other game.
He is also one of the best role models of the game. Like any modern football star, Owen has never lacked for fame and money. Yet one can hardly remember seeing him on the back pages of newspapers for the wrong reasons.
The Kop may not have forgiven him yet for going over to the "enemy" side, but when Michael Owen hangs up his boots, it would be no surprise to see all rising to applaud a man who has given us some of the game's most memorable moments.
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