IT IS probably the cringiest moment from Michael Owen’s long list.
But now he has broken his silence on the infamous “well done, he’s 13” gag from Neville Southall.
He famously celebrated the goals[/caption]
Neville Southall quipped the famous phrase ‘well done, he’s 13’[/caption]
Owen featured in a Michael Owen Soccer Skills video in 1999 where he faced a young goalkeeper at an empty Stoke City stadium.
The former England striker did his best to humiliate the 13-year-old Jamie Hutchinson, who was given goalkeeping tips from Southall.
To his credit, Hutchinson did make some saves.
But the video is remembered for Owen chipping, rounding and firing past the helpless child between the sticks – before shamelessly celebrating each finish.
The laughing ex-Liverpool man clenched his fists, ran away with his arms aloft, mocked the goalkeeper for nutmegging him and pointed to his name on the back of his shirt.
But it was his embarrassing shout of “get in there – game, set and match, Owen” that triggered Southall’s brilliant quip.
Southall said: “Well done, he’s 13,” a comment which remains a viral sensation and etched into British football heritage.
But now, 26 years on, Owen has opened up on the clip – and revealed not all was quite as it seemed because he was told to play up for the cameras.
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He told talkSPORT: “I was only a couple of years older than him myself!. It’s probably funny now.
“I got back from the World Cup in 98 and there were loads of commercial opportunities, things like that.
“I was asked to do a soccer skills video and a soccer skills book. So I had to explain, talk through finishing, volleying, heading, whatever the skill was. Inevitably, you need a goalkeeper there.
“I never picked them and so I turned up to do the show and to talk through how I see scoring a goal and what I think in certain scenarios and whatever.
“There was a kid in goal that I had to score past and when I scored they’re like, ‘Come on, no, you need to show a bit more animation. Like celebrate when you score, this is going on a video.’”
talkSPORT host Andy Goldstein clarified: “So people don’t know this, right?”
And Owen continued: “People just laugh at you no matter what. Then they take a little extract of anything.
“There’s loads of things like that on the internet on me.”
‘NOT EXACTLY IDEAL’
Hutchinson spoke about the viral video in 2016 and admitted he knew it would not come out too well for him.
He said: “Being the goalkeeper on a programme headlined by a striker wasn’t exactly ideal for me.
“It was made clear that it wouldn’t make good filming if the goalkeeper was saving all the shots taken by the other kids after they had been coached by Michael.”
And even Southall himself did defend Owen’s actions earlier this year.
The 92-cap Wales goalkeeper – who reunited with Hutchinson a few years ago – added: “I think he was being ironic to be fair, but I think he was enjoying himself and being ironic.
“But the poor kid, he scored a squillion goals past him and I was thinking ‘give him a break’.
“On the day, Michael was okay and he’s always okay.
“People judge him on that and that’s not him.”
Owen pointed to the name on his shirt[/caption]
The ex-striker revealed he was told to give it big[/caption]
Southall and Hutchinson were reunited a few years ago[/caption]
