Bayern München's Owen Hargreaves on his rise to soccer stardom
It’s the stuff dreams are made of. One day you’re a 15-year-old member of the Calgary Hills youth soccer team near Alberta, Canada—the next, you’re given the chance to try out for Bayern München, one of the world’s most successful clubs. And so it was that Owen Hargreaves arrived in Munich with a pair of cleats, a burning ambition and not even a smattering of German. “I knew little about Germany and absolutely nothing about Munich,” he says. “The day I arrived, we drove from the airport and it was gray and raining. Everything looked gloomy. It was almost depressing. I wondered what I’d got myself into.” Eight years later, after a meteoric rise through the ranks, Hargreaves, 23, has firmly established himself as a member of the Bayern starting line-up, having helped the club win numerous national and international titles. In addition, he has represented England (the country of his father’s birth) in the international arena. Yet he has still found time to get to know his adopted hometown. “Munich is very beautiful, particularly in the summer,” he says. “It has everything you could wish for. And the more I see of Bavaria the more I love it. The Alps and lakes such as Starnberger or Tegernsee, are simply wonderful.” To be honest, Hargreaves would probably have moved to Timbuktu or Outer Mongolia if it meant the opportunity to try out as a professional. From an early age, he had decided this was the career he wished to follow and he pursued this ambition with ferocious dedication. Dedication. Tenacity. Focus. Regardless of what word you use, it is the same aspect of Hargreaves’ personality that all his friends and trainers comment upon. Apart from sublime skills, he has always displayed a superb attitude and confidence. And it is these attributes that helped him become the first North-American player ever to start a game for Bayern München, when he took to the field on April 21, 2001, against Eintracht Frankfurt, aged just 20. Although he garnered favorable reviews for his initial performances, the game that defined Hargreaves’ early career was on May 9, in the second leg of the 2001 Champions League semi-final. Stefan Effenberg, Bayern’s midfield star, was suspended. The then Bayern trainer, Ottmar Hitzfeld, took a chance and committed Hargreaves to the field. It was a brave decision. Bayern was playing Real Madrid, soccer’s superpower, and the pressure-filled atmosphere was intense. Squaring off against Luis Figo, the world’s highest-paid player, Hargreaves could have wilted. Instead he dominated the midfield, playing with skill and composure. With crisp, economical and unexpected passes he continually created opportunities for his team, setting up the situations that led Bayern to victory. It was the type of performance that once moved Germany’s legendary national star Franz Beckenbauer to comment: “When I see this boy with the ball, my heart leaps.” Two weeks later, during the final of the Champions League against Valencia, Hargreaves gave a similar performance. For the tens of millions of fans watching worldwide, it was clear a major new talent had arrived. Asked for his memories of that night, Hargreaves grins sheepishly and shakes his brown locks, admitting he cannot recall the details. “Obviously it was emotional and stressful and a great feeling when we won,” he says. “We were European Champions and it had been a chance I’d been waiting for all my life. I had concentrated all my efforts on becoming a soccer player and it all came together that night. Growing up I never quite believed I could make it at the highest levels—after all Canada is not famed for its footballers. So when I arrived in Munich I knew it would be difficult, but when I got onto the field for the first time it felt like I belonged. It was the same against Madrid. I knew it would be difficult, but it was a situation where I could measure my abilities against the best and quickly realized I could hold my own. That raised my confidence and I pushed myself that bit further.” Asked to name the match that meant the most for him, Hargreaves recalls England’s opening game of the 2002 World Cup in Japan/South Korea against Sweden. As a boy, his wall was decorated with posters of David Beckham. In that game, he was on the field with his childhood idol and earned rave reviews for his performance. When reviewing Hargreaves’ career, you cannot help reach the conclusion that luck has played a role, but it is a notion he rejects himself. “Obviously fate plays a role in everyone’s life, but I also think you earn your luck,” he says. “For me it was a big risk moving from Canada. There were no guarantees. But I wanted to do it, so the decision was simple and I passed my teenage years, from 15 to 18, at Bayern. There was little time for clubs, bars or girls. I was completely focused on football. I believe that if you have the ability and the commitment to succeed, then the rewards will follow.” And for Hargreaves, who is still delivering the sort of performances that first brought him to international prominence, it looks like his work and determination will pay off. Indeed, anyone who followed his impressive Euro 2004 campaign for England would not have been surprised to hear his name cropping up on the international transfer market this summer. But no matter where his career takes him, Hargreaves is under no illusions about the fact that in soccer, there are no guarantees. “Every season it is a matter of going back out on the field and marking your position, letting the others know that it is yours,” he says. “If you don’t, if you rest on your achievements, if you don’t continually try and better yourself, then other players will overtake you.”