As we walk into his hotel room, where he's relaxing after the advert shoot, it's easy to forget he's one of the world's most famous men. Sharing a sofa with his sister, Lesley, and dad Terry he's wolfing down cheese and pickle sandwiches and drinking orange juice by the bucket load. In fact he only breaks off to mutter comments to his dad about the match. Right now he looks just like any other 19-year-old sports fan on a Saturday afternoon.
Except he isn't. He's Michael Owen and he's relaxing in the penthouse suite of Liverpool's Swallow Hotel with his Porshe parked outside. But although he's just watching TV, it's really easy to see why we all lust after him. He's polite (he always shakes hands when he meets you), he has the world's sexiest smile and he's just so, well, normal.
As we walk over to talk to him, he invites us to sit in the adjoining bedroom where leans back on the bed, sighs, and motins for us to sit down (arrgh, we're on the bed with Michael Owen!) Away from the chaos of the advert shoot, Michael looks really relaxed, and he's up for a good old chat...
Do you think you're famous? I don't even think about it. I don't wake up in the morning and think,'Oooh, I'm so famous.' I wake up, get in my car and drive to the training ground and train for a couple of hours, talk to the lads in the team, maybe do some work on my own, go home, sort out my house. Maybe I'll play golf or snooker or table tennis. My life isn't weird. I do find it tough when my face is in the papers, and on the telly, but what can I do?
You claim you're really shy. It must be hard to see your face everywhere I'm not really shy, I just hate being fussed over. The other thing I hate is reading all about myself in newspapers. I like to keep myself to myself. But I don't mind being famous - it goes with the job!
You're fancied by loads of girls. Do you feel like a pop star? No! But it's nice to be seen as attractive. Girls seem to like me whatever I do, it doesn't matter if I play well or badly, and I fnd that funny. I just hop that all the girls that like me now will like me in ten years, when I'm older and not as good looking!
Do you like seeing posters of yourself? Yeah, the first time I saw myself on a poster I was amazed. I was like,'I can't believe that's me'. I also really liked the fact that magazines were writing about me, so I'd buy every single one that even mentioned my name so I could read it and check every word. Now I don't do it, the novelty has worn off.
Where's the weirdest place that you've been asked for an autograph? It's normally just in restaurnats or in the street. Even when people ask me at odd times I try not to be rude. After all, when I was at school I asked footballers for their autographs and they were never rude to me, and I always remember that. I'd hate it if a fan of mind said,'He was nasty to me.'I'd be gutted.
He sighs as he leans back and waves to his dad who's sitting in the other room still watching the rugby. It's obvious his dad is really prtective of his son and really close to him - in fact the family are so close that they seem to travel everywhere with Michael. Is this true? "Yeah, pretty much,"Michael admits. "My family have always come to every game I've played - even when I was at school. I think a lot of people are really impressed with that,but not me. Inever go up to my mum and say thanks for coming along today, because it's natural!'.
But aren't you moving into your own house - away from your family? Yes, but I don't know why! My family will be round all the time. I hate being alone and I'm only really happy when there are loads of people buzzing around. I'll be inviting my mum round every night to do the cleaning and cooking!
What? Shouldn't you be cooking or her? No way! I'm no good at cooking. My mum will come over to help me out with all that. She's great like that.
Tell us about your house. I'm buliding it from scratch. I bought some land about six or seven months ago and the house has taken ages to build, but I want to get it right. At the moment the workmen are sorting out the electrics and the decorating. It's got five bedrooms and a really cool snooker room.
Will you be doing the decorating? No, I'm not a manual person. I don't like wallpapering.I have the ideas but I leave it to my mum to make it happen.
Your mum must be busy! Yeah, I couldn't do without her!
So what will you be doing in your house? Just relaxing. I'm really into snooker at the moment and I love to play golf. I'll have my friends over and my girlfriend, Louise, will be here quite a lot.
Hmmm, his girlfriend - Louise. Michael suddenly changes the conversation as he realises what he's just done. He's started off that line of questioning. His eyes narrow and he visibly shudders as we ask him to talk about her. "All I can say is that yes, I'm still going out with Louise and we're really happy.'he mutters quietly.
So will you get married soon then? Who knows? Some magazine printed that I'd said I wasn't going to get married until I ws 23 and that's rubbish. I don't know when I'll get married - I certainly have no plans to do it at the moment.
Would you sell you wedding pictures to OK or Hello? No way, I'd hate to do something like that. When I get married I want to do it quietly. There's nothing wrong with doing the OK thing, but it just isn't me.
Does Louise find it weird that girls fancy you? I think she puts up with it, but to be honest I've never talked to her about it. It does affect my sister, my mum and my dad, because people are asking about me a lot, but they don't mind dealing with it.
It must be hard for Louise... I don't know. I find it hard to talk about it. In fact I've never said anything about my girlfriend in an interview before now. I don't like to talk about things like that - I try to keep it out of the spotlight.
With that Michael folds his arms and there's no doubt that he's not going to talk about Louise again. For one second there's such a look of defiance in his eyes that you can imagine how his opponents on the footie pitch feel. Then, within a minute, he's back to his normal self and everything's forgotten. 'You know what,'he says laughing. 'I always forget that people want to know everything about me. It's strange, especially because all I do is play football. I'm not an actor.'
Talking of acting, do you fancy doing that? No way! I'm really bad at acting, and I'm not very patient. I hate sitting around doing nothing. I'd rather stick to what I can do. I want to keep playing for England and Liverpool, and winning.
So what made you do the ad for the crisps then? I was really flattered to be asked. I really enjoyed it actually, but I couldn't do it all the time. I'd get too bored with the film shoot.
And with that Michael is called away by the photographer, David, who is itching to get started onl the photo shoot. 'Can we talk about everything else later?'he asks. 'I don't want to keep the photographer waiting.' As David hands him a shirt to change into, we pratically faint as Micahel whips off his top. He's got a fantastic body and there's a definite hint of a six-pack. He puts o the new shirt and stands there smiling. 'I'll be back to talk with you later,'he says. And with that he disappears - leaving us to recover...
Copyright � 1998-1999 Christy Chan. All rights reserved.