When a 22-year-old Michael Owen won the Ballon d’Or, the highest individual accolade in world football, in 2001, he was one of Britain’s most famous faces. The public watched as Owen, still slight of frame and boyish of face, moved from Liverpool to Real Madrid, precipitating the slow, tempered decline of his career. Gradually, his celebrity was superseded by contemporaries like Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard. Now a new Amazon documentary series, Meet the Owens, takes us deep into the banal afterlife of the former England striker.
“You are David Brent,” Michael’s wife, Louise, observes as her husband larks around their Flintshire home. They live with their four children: Love Island star Gemma, daughters Emily and Jessica, and a son, James, who has a degenerative sight condition. But aside from scenes of domestic harmony (there is a three-minute sequence showing Michael and his sprogs decorating a Christmas tree), the main focus of Meet the Owens is on Manor House, a Cheshire stables owned by the family. “It’s a way of life, it’s not a job,” Michael remarks, and much of the show’s drama revolves around his quest for winners at various races. The whole family buys into this: Jessica is an aspiring showjumper, while Gemma gamely signs up to be a jockey at a women’s-only charity race at Goodwood.
