Owen Hargreaves has revealed he was ‘devastated’ to be dropped by Bayern Munich after helping England to a 5-1 win at his club stadium in 2001.
England had beaten Germany in the group stage of the previous year’s Euros, but when the Three Lions made the trip to Munich for a World Cup qualifier in September 2001, they had not beaten them on German soil since 1965.
There were also quite a few high profile defeats still niggling at the English psyche. Dietmar Hamann had scored the last-ever goal at the old Wembley to give Germany victory just the previous year, while England has suffered penalty heartbreak at German hands in the 1990 World Cup and Euro 96 semi-finals.
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Hargreaves: ‘I was a young man who had experienced this famous win in his home town, but I also blamed it for ending up on the bench at Bayern’
England looked set for another miserable night in Munich after Carsten Jancker put the hosts ahead after just six minutes.
But Michael Owen equalised soon after and Steven Gerrard struck on the stroke of half time to give Sven-Goran Eriksson’s side the advantage at half time.
Owen made it 3-1 within minutes of the restart before completing his hat-trick on 66 minutes, with another Liverpool teammate, Emile Heskey, scoring to round off a 5-1 victory.
Having broken into Bayern’s first team the previous season Hargreaves came off the bench for his second England cap just a few minutes after Heskey got the fifth, with the Canadian-born midfielder becoming the first player to appear for England without ever having lived in the country.
That capped an incredible year for the then-20 year old – but also led Bayern to apply the brakes slightly thereafter.
Hargreaves told FourFourTwo: “That was a wild time for me. We’d just won the Champions League final with Bayern, I was playing for the first team regularly and I got called up to play for the England team, so I was flying.
“That game was an odd one from a personal perspective, as I was living in Munich and had been looking forward to the game, hoping I’d get on.
“We battered Germany 5-1 and I actually got dropped by Bayern after that win.
“I don’t think it was anything petty – I think they just thought it was all going a bit too fast for me and I needed to cool down. But I was devastated as I’d been on this great run.
“So, I had mixed feelings. I was a young man who had experienced this famous win in his home town, but I also blamed it for ending up on the bench.”
Hargreaves soon regained his place at Bayern, however, and went on to help them to three more league title before joining Manchester United in 2007.
Hargreaves played a part in helping Sir Alex Ferguson’s side win the league title and Champions League in his first season at the club, but struggled with repeated injuries thereafter and hung up his boots in 2012.
Owen Hargreaves was speaking to FourFourTwo on behalf of TNT Sports.
