Michael Owen has never finished a book.
In 2014, he tweeted that he had just watched his eighth film on a flight. Not the eighth film of the flight, but the eighth film of his life. While on a flight.
Watched my eighth ever film on the flight home. Must have been bored. #HateFilms
— Michael Owen (@themichaelowen) October 14, 2014
This is just part of a greater struggle he has with the idea of fiction under any circumstances. “It has to be real for me to get into something,” he said in an interview in 2006.
As a footballer, for a while, this made him lethal. His goalscoring came from this pursuit of adrenaline, which was simply heightened reality. When he pushed past Lee Dixon to score Liverpool’s winning goal in the 2001 FA Cup final, his face told the story.
He was in pursuit of the only high available to him and anyone who got in his path had to get the hell out of his way. The rush of scoring goals didn’t bring joy, it was something else. “Scoring gives you a 10-second buzz, but I would not describe it as joyful,” he said once.
Why would you read a book or watch any film that wasn’t Cool Runnings when you’ve experienced those ten seconds?
Films I've been forced to watch:
Rocky
Heat
Ghost
Jurassic Park
Cool Runnings
Seabiscuit
Karate Kid
Forest Gump— Michael Owen (@themichaelowen) October 14, 2014
Where do you go when you have known such highs? Where do you go when you know those moments will never come again? To the BT studio in Stratford, that’s where.
On Wednesday night, Owen lost himself in the moment when Sergi Roberto scored Barcelona’s decisive goal on the most incredible night in Champions League history.
Owen was on the panel for the game alongside Rio Ferdinand and Steven Gerrard. Gary Lineker was presenting.
In the final seconds, anything seemed possible. Across the world, people were transfixed as Barcelona began a comeback within a comeback. They had been beaten once, they had been beaten twice, but now they would stun the world with their triumph.
BT showed the footage later. All the panellists sense something is happening as Neymar floats the beautiful ball into the box.
Owen was obeying the same instincts that set him off on his run in Saint-Etienne against Argentina in 1998. He may not be 18 any more and this might not have been the World Cup, but there was a chance for some heightened reality and, watching the footage, it’s clear that he hasn’t lost the love for it.
While Ferdinand and Gerrard remain in their positions, Owen is already edging out of his seat. He has seen all the possibilities. Soon he is gone, running around the studio, behaving as so many did when the goal went in, lost in the adrenaline of the moment.
What a reaction in the BT Sport studio from @rioferdy5, Steven Gerrard, @themichaelowen & @GaryLineker! #FCBPSG https://t.co/YCxY8DWvJQ
— eir Sport (@eirSport) March 8, 2017
Some people seemed to get upset that Owen – a former Real Madrid player – was celebrating a Barcelona victory, but that was entirely unimportant.
He was obeying a higher calling. He was lost in pursuit of that momentary high and the notion that he should pay lip service to some false notion of loyalty to a club he represented for one season was preposterous.
As Owen lost himself, Ferdinand and Gerrard celebrated too. Lineker, the former Barcelona player, stood up and clapped delightedly. At the moment when Owen is poised, Lineker is texting on his phone. Later he said he had been sending a message to his sons who are Barcelona supporters and it said ‘PLEEAASE!’.
On the set as well, Lineker is in a parental role, watching as these younger men celebrate exuberantly, but he is clearly delighted too, enjoying it all, offering reassurance and permanence here, as he does these days in every aspect of public life.
Gerrard and Ferdinand are captivated too, jumping up on the spot, but Owen is gone, heading on a lap of the studio, experiencing a feeling which may be like the ten-second buzz he once had, while also never coming close.
Neymar said afterwards that he had told Sergi Roberto he would attempt that pass, but Owen had already sensed it was on, anticipating the opportunity as he had once anticipated opportunities in the great stadiums of the world.
And this is where the sadness comes in, this is where we realise that even in joy there is the inevitable melancholy as we realise that the sun will set, the red will turn grey. As Steve Martin used to say during his stand up, ‘We’ve had some fun tonight considering we’re all gonna die some day.”
When they showed the clip back to them afterwards, Lineker joked about how it was “mildly embarrassing for four old blokes”.
They are all old pros and it added to people’s joy that they too had been lost in this game, celebrating in the same way that everyone else had rejoiced. But there is also the unspoken reminder that they were once the suppliers of these moments.
Gerrard is the panellist who has played most recently and he is the one who knows more than any of the others what it is like to unite the world in astonishment.
When Joe Di Maggio was married to Marilyn Monroe, during their honeymoon in Japan she took a trip to Korea to entertain the US troops while the former New York Yankee stayed in Tokyo.
Thousands of marines turned out to see her. When she returned to Japan, she told her husband, “Joe, you never heard such cheering.”
“Yes I have,” he replied.
Old pros have heard the cheering that echoed round Camp Nou on Wednesday. Barcelona allowed them to forget the reality and to believe anything is still possible. But we all know the truth: that reality can’t always be heightened and one day everything will seem as fleeting as that ten-second buzz .
