Ex-Liverpool and Man Utd striker Michael Owen names his ‘most underrated’ teammate

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Asked who he regards as his ‘most underrated’ teammate, Owen told OLBG: ‘Sami Hyypia at Liverpool. Liverpool spent just £2.5m to sign Sami Hyypia (Picture: Getty) ‘I just think he was exceptional and when I listen to people talking about all the great defenders of all time in the Premier League he never gets a mention. ‘He was exceptional, an unbelievable player.

Little things that people maybe not pick up on but no he was very, very good and as underrated players go he would be my selection.’ Liverpool offered Hyypia a coaching role as his playing career was coming to an end and while he rejected the offer in favour of a move to Bayer Leverkusen, he expressed interest in returning to Anfield as a coach at a later date, such was his affection for the club. Our journalists work hard to deliver the most important stories from around the world ‘I think sometimes we think of this team now [as the best] – and rightly so, they’ve done a lot more than the teams I played in – but if I think where Liverpool were in 1999, they were a team who were finishing sixth and seventh,” Carragher told Sky Sports in 2021. ‘They couldn’t come out of the Roy Evans era, they’d gone close to the title and it was fading away; Gerard Houllier comes in and that Liverpool team is known as a weak team, they got bullied. ‘[Hyypia] came in, he played for the club for 10 years, he was never injured.

It was built on solidity, and that started with his signing. ‘The price tag, the never being injured, the 10 years’ service he gave and the trophies he was part of winning. ‘It was a toss-up between him and Mo Salah, he’s been top scorer, you think of what he’s won, it’s a tough one. ‘Virgil van Dijk came in and made Liverpool the Champions League [winners] – don’t forget Sami Hyypia won the Champions League. ‘The only thing that team, or Sami Hyypia, didn’t win was the league. The impact he had at Liverpool was just instrumental.’ For more stories like this, check our sport page.