‘I felt I’d climbed a mountain after the 2006 World Cup. A lot of England fans and journalists had never seen me play, but I always knew I’d win them round’ Owen Hargreaves on proving the naysayers wrong

When Owen Hargreaves made his senior international debut in August 2001, he became the first Three Lions player to appear for England without having ever lived in the country.

Born in Canada to a Welsh mother and an English father, Hargreaves had a choice of three nationalities to play for and after a dalliance with the Welsh youth set-up, he declared for the Three Lions.

The midfielder’s full international debut came against the Netherlands in August 2001 under Sven-Goran Eriksson and Hargreaves believes the fact that England were being managed by a Swede, rather than an Englishman, was a factor in his selection.

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Hargreaves on his first England call-up

“I probably did get a chance a bit earlier because of that,” Hargreaves tells FourFourTwo, on behalf of TNT Sports. “But the way I see it is that Sven was a winner: he had been massively successful in club football before he took charge of England.

“What he really wanted was players he could rely upon to execute a plan – people he knew he could count on when the chips were down. I’ve always prided myself on being the sort of person that would give everything for a manager and his team-mates.

“I earned my opportunity under Sven and I clearly did enough to convince him that he could put his trust in me when he needed to. He was such a lovely man and a top coach.”

Hargreaves – who was ranked at no.25 in FourFourTwo’s list of the best England midfielders of all-time – soon became a staple of England’s midfield, and he believes that his performances at the 2006 World Cup, where he was perhaps his side’s best player, helped the fans finally accept him.

“Yeah I did,” he continues. “I saw it as another mountain I had climbed. “I’d been doubted by some in the Bayern academy, but eventually won my place in the first team and then helped the club to win many trophies.

“I’d been doubted when I first joined up with England, but proved people wrong there. A lot of England supporters and journalists didn’t watch the Bundesliga and had never seen me play, so naturally they didn’t rate me.

“How could they? But I was always confident I’d win them round and, while the World Cup finished disappointingly from a team perspective, I did feel personally vindicated as an England player.”

Hargreaves would play just eight more times for England following that tournament in Germany, as injuries derailed his career as he struggled to make an impact at Manchester United following his £17million 2007 move to the Premier League.