In his own words, it was “possibly the longest-running transfer saga” in football. But after a several months of prolonged pursuit, United finally signed Owen Hargreaves from Bayern Munich in May 2007 for a fee of around £17million.

The Canadian-born, England international midfielder’s stock had risen dramatically in the previous year, and by the time he arrived at Old Trafford, he had become one of European football’s most highly-thought of defensive midfielders, having won four Bundesliga titles with Bayern.

After an injury-disrupted start to his United career, Hargreaves came to the fore

in the second half of the successful 2007/08 campaign with a string of tireless and confident performances in midfield and also, on occasion, at right-back. He capped a satisfying debut season with a superb penalty in the Champions League final shoot-out victory over Chelsea.

But a recurrence of his knee problem – and a subsequent double operation in the USA – forced Owen to miss almost all of the 2008/09 campaign as he made just three appearances.

Born and raised in Calgary, Canada, Owen left for Germany aged 16 to join Bayern Munich. After earning his stripes in Bayern's youth ranks,