According to Mirror, James Owen aspired to emulate his well-known father, even though very few players could match his dad’s lethal instinct in front of goal.
Even though Michael’s career had already advanced significantly by the time James was born in February 2006, he still qualified for the World Cup that summer, played for England for two more years, and remained a Manchester United player until James was six years old. All of these things gave James hope for the future.
Growing up, Owen junior was one of the top players in his age group, and he aspired to follow his father’s footsteps in the business by going pro. However, that hope was dashed upon learning that the patient had Stargardt Disease, which impairs the central, detailed vision of the eyes, rendering a football career all but unattainable.
However, after spending time with the England men’s football team, who are partially blind, James, now 17 years old, has a different perspective on the game.
“I got diagnosed when I was quite young, so I can’t really remember it all because I was pretty much straight onto football, but I used to play all the time,” James tells Mirror Football. “When I got diagnosed that was hard, but I didn’t stop straight away.
“I kept playing, but Stargardt’s is a deterioration so after a while it just got to the point where I knew I couldn’t make a career out of it and I was starting to… I wouldn’t say get worse but everyone (else) was getting better. I kind of lost enjoyment out of it from that point of view. I used to play quite often but I don’t play any more.”
“I was still one of the best players. I don’t think my eyesight really held me back in the teams I used to play for, but it did hold me back to the point where it would be an option to go professional.
“I think what I wanted to do is I wanted to go professional and obviously it was frustrating to a point where over a while it just kind of lost the fun. I still love to play football with my mates here and there, and to be honest if I could go back I probably would have kept playing for a year or two more, but at the time I was frustrated and it was a bit draining.”
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As part of their documentary, “Football is for Everyone,” Michael and James both learned about football for partially sighted people. The format of the game, which is played on futsal pitches with four partially-sighted outfielders and a sighted goalkeeper, helps people who have trouble seeing certain colors and over longer distances.
Technically speaking, Michael says, James has always been gifted. He has excellent balance, is fast, and a good dribbler, so when the ball was at his feet, I thought, ‘He’s got a right chance. But as he grew older, those [other] things took on greater significance, and that’s when he kind of slowed down his playing.
The 2023 IBSA World Games were held in England and featured both the men’s and women’s blind teams in addition to the men’s partially sighted team, which included athletes with Stargardt’s disease. Michael and James accompanied the team on their quest to surpass their 2019 performance, which ended in a loss to Ukraine in the championship game.
“Interestingly, when James actually put his boots back on during this documentary, to play, I think he and I and everyone had the impression it might be a really average standard because people’s eyesight is poor and all the rest of it,” Michael adds. “But it was just incredible, the standard.
“James was lucky enough to participate in the training session and scored a goal, actually, which was great. But it’s done to a really high standard and that’s one of the things that blew us away, really, doing the documentary.
“I was pleasantly surprised by the level of ability of these players. A very high standard that I didn’t expect, and nor did James for that matter. He’s had such a gap in his career in many ways, he’s not played football properly for four or five years, so I thought it was always going to be pie in the sky if you thought James was going to all of a sudden play with the England team and be the best player in the group and play the game for ever more.
“But what it has made him realise is that football is there for everyone, there’s lots of things out there that people don’t realise, to make it more accessible for everybody else, and James is keen to spread the word for other people in his situation.”
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