Much to the disappointment of many, Michael Owen doesn’t seem to be making quite as many appearances in the commentary booth these days.
But having a bit of free time on his hands this weekend wasn’t all that bad, as he was invited to former club Real Madrid to watch Cristiano Ronaldo receive his latest Ballon d’Or in front of the Bernabéu crowd.
Owen, a Ballon d’Or winner in 2001, was joined by fellow former winners and teammates Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo (the Brazilian one) on the pitch as the other Ronaldo was publicly handed his latest award ahead of Real’s 5-0 win over Granada.
After his on-pitch reunion with his old teammates, Owen joked about Brazilian’s post-retirement weight gain in a tweet sent out to his 3.56m followers.
Although he clearly didn’t intend to offend the World Cup winner, many replying to Owen’s tweet didn’t like the former England international’s attempt at humour, and responded with a few unkind tweets of their own.
There was plenty of reference to the fact that Owen didn’t always start during his season in Spain…
he must've just looked smaller from the bench Michael
— Ash (@BFC84Ash) January 7, 2017
With some going as far as suggesting that Owen’s stint at Real was so insignificant that Ronaldo had forgotten who he was…
https://twitter.com/kubla_/status/817741998144811008
Some made reference Owen’s often-criticised commentary style…
https://twitter.com/ynfafootball/status/817748828438876160
With others saying Ronaldo was a much better player than Owen ever was…
he might be twice the size of you but he was twice the player you ever were as well
— Greg (@greg198610) January 7, 2017
But perhaps the unkindest of all the replies was this one…
i wish gravessen was invited instead of you
— # (@RMCF_World) January 7, 2017
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