Owen Hargreaves joined Manchester United on July 1, 2007, after almost a year of negotiations between Bayern Munich and Manchester United for a fee of around £17 million. Hargreaves was finally unveiled as a Manchester United player on July 1, having signed a four-year contract with the club. He was then revealed to the press on July 9, along with fellow newcomer Nani. Hargreaves was given the number 4 shirt at Old Trafford, the number previously worn by Gabriel Heinze.
Hargreaves made his Manchester United debut in a friendly against Peterborough United on August 4, coming on as a second half substitute in United's 3-1 victory. He made his first Premier League appearance in Manchester United's third game of the season, in the derby match away to Manchester City in a 1-0 defeat.
Hargreaves is the youngest of three children born to Margaret and Colin Hargreaves who had migrated to Canada at the start of the eighties from Great Britain. His father played football for the Bolton Wanderers youth side and also for the Calgary Kickers of the Canadian Soccer League. He has two brothers, Darren and Neil. His eldest brother, Darren, represented Canada at youth level.
Owen Hargreaves moved at the age of sixteen from Calgary Foothills to Bayern Munich on 1 July 1997. Hargreaves played in the Under-19 team for two and a half years before spending six months with the Amateur team. Whilst with the Under 19s the team reached the Final of the German Championship in 1998. They lost in the final to Borussia Dortmund, but only after a penalty shoot-out in Dortmund's Rote-Erde Stadium.
On 12 August 2000, Hargreaves played in his first Bundesliga match, making an appearance as a substitute for Carsten Jancker in the 83rd minute. His first start came against SpVgg Unterhaching on 16 September 2000. That season proved to be a triumphant one for Bayern Munich; the club were Bundesliga champions and also claimed the UEFA Champions League crown. Hargreaves's performances in the Champions League semi final against Real Madrid put him in the international spotlight as he showed he was capable of holding his own against the likes of Roberto Carlos and Luís Figo. He is one of only two English players to have won a Champions League medal with a non-English club, the other being two-time winner Steve McManaman (Real Madrid).
In the 2001-02 season Hargreaves established himself as a first team regular, making 46 appearances in all. In spite of setbacks for the club in the form of a third place finish in the Bundesliga, a quarter final appearance in the Champions League and a Cup defeat by Schalke, the season proved to be a decisive one for Hargreaves as he emerged as a key player of the team.
Hargreaves was eligible to play international football for any one of the Home Nations or for Canada, and had he not accepted selection at the time he did, would soon have been eligible for Germany under residency rules. On August 31, 2000, the then England U21 manager, Howard Wilkinson, called the 19-year-old into his squad for the match against Georgia. Further appearances for the U21s followed in friendlies against Italy and Spain.
Hargreaves played his first full international game on August 15, 2001 against the Netherlands at White Hart Lane, giving him the distinction of being the only player to appear for England when he had neither lived, nor played club football, in England. Hargreaves was the only player playing outside the Premier League to be selected for England's 2002 FIFA World Cup squad.
Although he had not usually been part of the first choice team, he was selected for the England squads at Euro 2004 in Portugal and the 2006 World Cup in Germany despite criticism from sections of the press and public. The generally negative perception of him by English fans had not been helped by his seeming to have an essence of "German-ness", exacerbated by his German/Canadian accent. His entry into England's first match of the 2006 World Cup as a substitute prompted vocal abuse from a number of England fans. However, in a tournament in which England were generally regarded as having underachieved, he was, by the end of England's participation, widely considered one of the few successes of the English squad, and he was named "Man of the Match" in the quarter final against Portugal, the game in which England were eliminated after a penalty shootout, Hargreaves having been the only successful English penalty taker. In 2006, he won both England Player of the Year, and England Player of the World Cup in official FA polls, the first to win both in the same year.
He continued his rise in the eyes of English supporters in picking up the Man of the Match award in England's 4-0 win over Greece on August 18, 2006, where he first took over the number seven shirt of former captain David Beckham. On January 30, 2007 he was voted England Player of the Year 2006, as voted for by visitors to the Official FA site.
Owen Hargreaves came in with a lot of expectations from the Manchester United fans to live up to his reputation. The boy from Calgary, Canada is now the football player that will begin the new chapter of his career to continue the legacy of legends such as Bryan Robson, Roy Keane and David Beckham in Old Trafford.
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