Michael Owen has compared himself with Kylian Mbappe and claimed he would have been worth over £100million if he played today.
Owen retired from football back in 2013, bringing to an end a career which saw him play for Liverpool, Real Madrid, Newcastle United, Manchester United and Stoke City. He broke through into the Liverpool first team aged just 17 and enjoyed huge success with the club, scoring 158 goals in 297 appearances.
The England striker won the Premier League golden boot in consecutive seasons from 1997 to 1999 and went on to scoop the Ballon d’Or in 2001. Owen’s form in front of goal earned him an £8m move to Real in the summer of 2004 when he was 24 years old.
Transfer fees have been hugely inflated over the past 18 years, with Mbappe and Neymar’s moves to Paris Saint-Germain in 2017 the two highest, at a reported €180m and €222m respectively. Owen believes his exceptional start at Liverpool would have put him in a similar category in the age of modern fees.
"I don't know, I mean, it felt like figures were a little bit higher, one or two years ago than they actually are now,” he told Ace Odds. "Obviously, the Erling Haaland move wasn't really a true reflection of his price because of the agency fee and all the different stipulations he had in the contract.
"So it was an open market, free market, when I was 19, 20 and at the absolute peak of my powers. I don't know, you're talking £100-something million probably, I guess it's hard to say.
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"Well, what’s Mbappe worth nowadays? I really don't know. If he was to leave PSG you'd be looking at £150m, £200m maybe? So if a Mbappe was worth £150m to £200m, I don't know. But yeah, I was that similar type of player who was breaking through, winning the Ballon d'Or, won two golden boots and went to the World Cup at 18 and all that kind of stuff."
Owen scored 40 goals in 89 games for England, but saw his club form steadily decline from his prolific early years at Liverpool. Injuries contributed to diminishing returns on the pitch and he admits his market value would have plummeted over time.
"The one thing that you would say is even if I was worth £150m, then probably if someone bought it they wouldn't have got a bargain because my career sort of got worse as I got older,” he joked.
Mbappe came close to leaving PSG for Real Madrid on a free transfer over the summer, but ended up staying put after signing a bumper new contract. Transfermarkt judges him to be the most valuable player in the world currently, at £144m, ahead of Haaland (£135m) and Real forward Vinicius Jr (£108m).
