Michael Owen drops 'huge' Sheffield Wednesday claim | OneFootball

The former England international has revealed that one of the most significant moments of his early career came at Hillsborough in 1998.

The former England star Michael Owen has revealed that games against Sheffield Wednesday in the late 1990s were a big part of his arrival as a top-flight player.

By the end of the 2026-27 season, it will have been 27 years since Sheffield Wednesday were last a top-flight club. Few would have believed, when they were relegated from the Premier League in 2000, that almost three decades on, the club would be labouring in League One.

The 1990s were a boom time for the club. After winning the League Cup and promotion in 1991, they became a mainstay of the top division for the rest of the decade, finishing as runners-up in both the FA Cup and the League Cup in 1993 and finishing third in 1992, and seventh in 1997.

And Wednesday played a pivotal part in the development of one of the best English strikers of the era. Michael Owen was just 17 years of age when he made his full debut against them at the end of the 1996-97 season, but it was his appearance against them the following season which has really stuck in his memory, as he set a Premier League record which survives to this day.

Michael Owen scored his first Premier League hat-trick against Sheffield Wednesday

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Speaking to the Sheffield Star, the former Liverpool and England international Michael Owen has spoken of the role that Sheffield Wednesday inadvertently played in his early development as a player.

Owen had made his full debut for Liverpool at Hillsborough on the final weekend of the 1996-97 season, but it was the following season's trip there which went a long way towards establishing his reputation as a goalscorer who could terrify opposing defences.

Owen was just 18 years and 62 days old at the time of the match, and he scored his first-Premier League hat-trick that day, becoming the youngest Premier League player ever to do so, a record which still stands to this day.

The memories of that day stay with Owen, almost three decades on. "At the time, it was a great achievement," he told the Star: "It was obviously a massive moment at the time when I did it. It is definitely a moment I cherish. I've still got the match-ball."

And Owen also recognises the importance that Wimbledon and Sheffield Wednesday, the clubs against whom he started his career for Liverpool, as having been critically important to his development as a player.

"Teams like Wimbledon and Sheffield Wednesday were huge parts of my launch of my career", he told the Star, "Wimbledon was my debut, and then my main starting debut was Sheffield Wednesday. And then the first game of the next season was Wimbledon again, and I scored again. And then my first hat-trick was only a few games later against Sheffield Wednesday again."

What Sheffield Wednesday fans have said about Michael Owen on social media

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Michael Owen's early career hat-trick has prompted memories of the player that he was, so here's what's been said about the striker and his hat-trick against Sheffield Wednesday in February 1998.

This Wednesdayite was at Hillsborough in 1998 and remembers thinking that this particular player would go on to great things:

And this fan remembers all four sides of Hillsborough applauding him that day:

The subject of Owen's 1998 hat-trick against Wednesday has come up on the social media platform X before, and in 2024 this fan could only compare the players that the Owls had at the time with how far the club had fallen by that time:

But this fan had a somewhat harsh view of one of the players that he was coming up against that day:

Michael Owen's hat-trick against Sheffield Wednesday was an early sign of what this young striker would become

Michael Owen made his Liverpool debut at the end of the 1996-97 season as a substitute against Wimbledon, scoring in a 2-1 defeat, but made his full Premier League debut for them against Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough five days later on the final day of the season, in a match which ended in a 1-1 draw.

But it was the following season's meeting at Hillsborough on Valentine's Day 1998 which was the truly memorable one for the young striker. Benito Carbone's lob had given Wednesday an early lead, but Owen was put through to level after 27 minutes, and the score remained 1-1 at half-time.

Figures from Transfermarkt

It turned out to be a dramatic second half at Hillsborough. Goals from Paolo di Canio and Andy Hinchcliffe put Wednesday into a 3-1 lead with twenty minutes to play, but a double substitution from the Liverpool manager Roy Evans made a huge difference. He brought on Patrik Berger and Karl-Heinz Riedle and switched to a more attacking formation, and two Owen goals in six minutes pulled Liverpool back into the game, which ended in a 3-3 draw.

Owen's hat-trick against Wednesday also played a small role in the striker's rise to prominence as an international player. He'd made his debut for England against Chile three days earlier, and his Premier League form throughout the second half of the 1997-98 season led to him being selected for Glenn Hoddle's squad for the 1998 World Cup finals, where he scored one of his country's most memorable ever goals in their second round defeat against Argentina. He'd go on to play club football for Real Madrid, Newcastle United, Manchester United and Stoke City before retiring at the end of the 2012-13 season, and would score 40 times in 89 appearances for England.

Three decades on, it might look on the surface as though these two clubs inhabit different universes. Since Wednesday's 2000 relegation, they've been relegated to League One twice, while Liverpool have won the Champions League twice and the Premier League.

But as Sheffield Wednesday start their 2025-26 season seeking a return to the Championship, the examples of clubs such as Ipswich Town and Southampton may linger in their thoughts. Both of these clubs won two successive promotions from League One to the Premier League. As Wednesday adjust to life in the third tier under new ownership, they should keep in mind that it could