Did Michael Owen win the Ballon d'Or? The answer is yes, but without being crowned the best player in world football. Read on to find out how this happened…
Owen was awarded the 2001 Ballon d'Or for a miraculous calendar year that saw him score 31 goals for Liverpool and pick up five winner's medals.
Aged just 21, Owen put the disappointment of being an unused sub in Liverpool's 2001 League Cup final win behind him to score two dramatic late goals and snatch the FA Cup final from Arsenal's grasp.
Prior to that he had chipped in with a crucial brace against soon-to-be Italian champions Roma in a UEFA Cup win in Rome, en route to claiming the Reds' first European trophy in 17 years.
Owen's 18 Premier League goals in 2001 helped Liverpool qualify for the Champions League for the first time since the competition had evolved from the old European Cup.
And he scored as Gerard Houllier's side beat Premier League champions Manchester United and Champions League winners Bayern Munich in the Charity Shield and UEFA Super Cup, respectively.
Perhaps most memorably of all, Owen put another three past Bayern's Oliver Kahn a week after the Super Cup final, when the goalkeeper was playing for Germany against England in a 5-1 victory for the Three Lions in Munich.
All of which convinced a panel of sports journalists from around Europe to award Owen the 2001 Ballon d'Or, ahead of Real Madrid's Raul.
But it wasn't the Ballon d'Or which Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Manuel Neuer hope to claim in January, having been shortlisted for the 2014 prize that will crown the world's best player this year.
Instead, the original Ballon d'Or - which ran from 1956 to 2009 - was an award organised by France Football magazine and given to the European Footballer of the Year.
Until 1995, only European players playing for European clubs were eligible for the original Ballon d'Or, meaning the likes of Pele and Diego Maradona weren't considered for the honour, despite the latter playing for Napoli with distinction (although both players were later awarded honorary Ballon d'Ors).
Africa's George Weah became the first non-European winner in 1995, thanks to his form with AC Milan, while Owen's 2001 win was the fourth for an English player after Sir Stanley Matthews (the inaugural winner in 1956), Sir Bobby Charlton (1966) and Kevin Keegan (twice, in 1978 and 1979).
Meanwhile, in 1991 FIFA introduced a global award to crown the world's best player, with Germany's 1990 World Cup-winning captain Lothar Matthaus the first winner of the FIFA World Player of the Year.
A decade later, Portugal's Luis Figo was crowned FIFA World Player of the Year (with David Beckham as runner up and Raul third, pictured below), while Ballon d'Or winner Owen finished eighth in the voting.
But in most years the FIFA World Player of the Year and the Ballon d'Or winner were one and the same, including every year from 2005 to 2009.
For example, Cristiano Ronaldo was the 2008 FIFA World Player of the Year…
And the 2008 Ballon d'Or winner…
So it was that in 2010 the Ballon d'Or was merged with the World Player of the Year, and would henceforth be known as the FIFA Ballon d'Or, as the premier accolade for recognising the world's best player.
The FIFA Ballon d'Or winner receives the same golden ball trophy awarded for the old European Footballer of the Year award, but it is now a truly global trophy.
Cast your vote here for the 2014 Ballon d'Or winner
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