Carragher was Owen's roommate at Liverpool until the latter's departure from Anfield in the summer of 2004. Only then did Gerrard take over from Owen, and thus, a friendship between Carragher and Gerrard blossomed.

While Gerrard is now viewed in league with Liverpool's greatest players and Carragher is seen as one of its most loyal, having spent his entire career at the club in an era so few do, it is easy to forget that at the beginning of their careers, Owen's standing in the game was much higher.

"If you were to ask me who had the strongest belief in their own ability between me, Stevie and Michael, I would say Michael," insists Carragher, who counts himself as having the least ability of the three but a relentless work ethic in training. Gerrard was the worrier, introspective but still mentally strong.

With Owen, though, Carragher says: "It was to the point where he'd find it very difficult to praise another striker. He'd hate the fact that someone might be better than him. Michael wasn't the type of person to say, 'Oh my god, did you see what Thierry Henry did for Arsenal last night?' He didn't think that anyone else was better than him. Instead, he'd find fault. There aren't many players like that.

"When he decided to sign for Real Madrid, I said to him, 'Yeah, but what about Raul and Ronaldo?' His response was, ‘Well, people said that about Fowler, Rush and Collymore at Liverpool—and I played ahead of them in the end.' It's certainly not a very British trait to be so self-assured. Maybe that's why some found it difficult to warm to him, even though behind the public persona, he was a really good lad."

Owen and Ronaldo pictured together in August 2005. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

Roy Evans, the manager who gave Carragher and Owen their Liverpool debuts, described the pair as "thick as thieves," despite their differences: Carragher was one academic year older than Owen and came from the gritty dock area of Bootle, just north of Liverpool, as opposed to a rural village in Wales.

Carragher, indeed, is not the type of person to offer platitudes just because someone is a friend of his. His straight talking and ability to analyse and interpret make him the pundit he is now.

"If European Footballer of the Year was for a season rather than a year, Michael wouldn't have won—it probably would have been Raul," Carragher says. "But because it is judged on the calendar year, Michael moved into contention."

Raul, the Real Madrid striker, had finished the 2000/01 campaign as a Liga winner, having scored 32 goals across all games for his club—the best total in his career and eight more than Owen, who had struggled for form until February.

"If you were to ask me who had the strongest belief in their own ability between me, Stevie and Michael, I would say Michael."

Jamie Carragher

"You can split the 2000/01 season in half in terms of Michael's performances," Carragher says. "There was huge competition for Liverpool's striker positions. Liverpool won a cup treble, and in the League Cup against Birmingham City, which finished with us winning on penalties, he was named as a substitute and never got on the pitch."

Carragher, rooming with Owen, could see that he was frustrated with Houllier changing the team each week to keep players happy and fresh.

"He went to see the manager a couple times about it," he says. "The problem for him in those discussions was that he wasn't playing particularly well. If you're playing well and the manager's still not picking you, it's then you should really start to worry."

Fowler, in better form than Owen, got the nod in the League Cup alongside Emile Heskey, whose talents were complementary to both.

"It was a disappointing moment for Michael because everybody wants to play in the cup final," Carragher says. "A manager can rotate and make excuses, saying, 'Well, I'm saving you for another game.' But when you don't play in a final, nothing can sugarcoat the decision. It wasn't as though the manager thought, 'I'll try and keep him happy by bringing him on.' Michael's a bright lad. It couldn't have been easy for him to accept it."

For Carragher, it was Owen's two-goal contribution in the FA Cup final victory over Arsenal in May that shifted perceptions: both on the endurance of Houllier's team as well as the ability of Owen to deliver on the biggest occasion.

Owen holds aloft the FA Cup after his match-winning performance in May 2001. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

"We'd reached the stage of the season where we were running on empty," he says. "Arsenal were a top-quality side with no real weaknesses. We were hanging on at 0-0 and then we were 1-0 down. I wouldn't say that we'd given up, but we were getting battered, and you need energy to regain the initiative when that happens. We didn't have much left. Many of the players' legs had gone.

"When Michael equalised, it injected us with energy and belief. Before that, we hadn't put Arsenal under pressure. It came from a set piece, Markus Babbel holding Tony Adams off and Michael reacting the quickest when it dropped down. We were attacking the end where our supporters were, and the goal gave us a massive lift with six or seven minutes to go. You get that first goal and it gives you a bit of something—like in Istanbul four years later [in the UEFA Champions League final win over Milan].

"Our crowd were lifted, Arsenal's went quiet, and suddenly, we looked like the team that might win. The feeling of the entire stadium changed."

Carragher believes the decision to award Owen the Ballon d'Or was helped by the fact there was no major international tournament in the summer of 2001. "Because the best player in that tournament usually has a great chance of winning the award," he reasons.

Two other important moments stand out. A remarkable 5-4 UEFA Cup final victory four days after Arsenal earned Liverpool an appearance in the UEFA Super Cup in Monaco. In the 3-2 win there, Owen scored past Bayern Munich’s Oliver Kahn, the goalkeeper who would finish third in Ballon d'Or voting.

Then there was England's 5-1 humiliation of Germany the following month in Munich. Kahn was the goalkeeper that night too, as Owen's name was etched into folklore as the striker whose hat-trick defeated the old enemy. "Michael had started the season on fire," Carragher says. "So he found momentum at the right time in the months before the decision was made."

Carragher can remember the day at Melwood when Houllier told him that Owen had become the European Footballer of the Year.

"Gerard was really excited. He was more excited than Michael," he says.

Owen believes that by the time he won the Ballon d'Or, his peak was behind him. "I suppose at 22, the long decline had already started," he says, "but when you are 22, you are naive enough to believe that the good times last forever."

That might explain why winning the award seemed so natural to him. But a catastrophic hamstring injury at 19 meant that for the rest of his career, the muscles in one of his legs had considerably less support than those in the other. This placed pressure on other parts of the body. By his mid-20s, the injuries were stacking up: groins strains, a torn knee ligament, calf and ankle issues.

It's also hard to appreciate the honors as they come when so much else is going on.

"When you're in the thick of it, you don't get time to marvel on what is happening," Owen insists, "especially when you play for a club the size of Liverpool where the challenge is always the next season and summers are short."

Other sports stars have told Owen they've had similar feelings, he says. "Even though you love what you are doing, there is very little joy in the moment. You are so concerned that you are not going to be at the very top the next week, the quest to maintain your level eclipses any real happiness or contentment. I always feared that I wouldn't be the best. The fear drives you on."

It's odd hearing Owen talking about fear considering what so many have said about his "unshakable confidence." He doesn't see it, though, as a vulnerability.

Owen celebrates scoring for England in their famous 5-1 win against Germany in September 2001. Photo courtesy of Getty Images.

"Ninety-nine point nine per cent, I was confident in my own ability," he says. "The remaining nought point nought per cent of doubt probably ensured that I achieved what I did in the game because I didn't rest on my laurels."

Owen started the 2001/02 season in blistering form, scoring twice on the opening day at a soaking Anfield against West Ham United. It had been a strange afternoon, with Fowler dropped from the matchday squad by Houllier for kicking a ball at Phil Thompson, Houllier's abrasive assistant, in training. Despite Owen's goals, Fowler's name was sung the most—a show of support for the Kop's favourite son.

When Owen celebrated Liverpool's winner, his release was more emotional than usual, as if to remind everyone, "I'm still here, you know."

He denies, though, it had anything to do with the chants for Fowler. "When I was 15 years old, I worshipped Robbie like a lot of the fans as well. I grew up as an Evertonian, but Steve Heighway always used to tell us that to be successful at Liverpool, you had to support the club. I appreciated that Robbie was the fans' favourite because he was my favourite too."

The hat-trick against Germany came a month after West Ham. Kahn, beaten five times that day, is nonetheless someone Owen describes as "one of the goalkeeping greats—very aggressive, very demanding. He'd charge off his line and take all before him."

Then he delivers a final measure of his belief.

"Goalkeepers, I never worried about them," he says. "What can they really do when a striker is bang on it?"