Gary Neville believes Michael Owen's move to Manchester United can rekindle his England career.
The striker, who joined United from Newcastle this summer, has found himself frozen out of the international picture under Fabio Capello.
But Neville said: "Anyone who plays for United over a season has a great chance of getting into an international team, no matter whether it be England or any other country.
"It's a hard club to play for and if you're playing well and doing well then you have a great chance.
"I don't think Michael moved to United for England. He's moved to improve Manchester United. But the opportunity is there for him."
The defender is also harbouring hopes of an England return ahead of the World Cup finals in South Africa next year.
Neville has endured a miserable time with injuries over the past couple of years but was recalled to the England squad for last month's qualifiers against Kazakhstan and Andorra.
The 34-year-old continued: "I have an opportunity. There's still a long way to go for anyone who thinks they can be in the squad.
"I like playing for England and want to be there. It's frustrating not winning anything with England and not getting to finals but there's still a chance there for me."
Gary Neville says Michael Owen is the ideal player to replace Carlos Tevez, who looks set for rivals Manchester City.
Sir Alex Ferguson snapped Owen up on a free transfer after the 29-year-old's disappointing spell at Newcastle.
And Neville, United's club captain, says Owen will repay Ferguson's faith in goals: "He (Owen) is at Manchester United because the gaffer believes he can score goals," he told Goal.com. "He is ideal now Carlos Tevez is gone."
"He has an opportunity to play at the highest level, at one of the biggest clubs in the world and of course, possibly regain his England place - but that will be at the discretion of the manager."
While Owen's international future is grabbing the headlines, Neville's own England ambitions were reignited by a shock recall to Fabio Capello's squad for the end of season World Cup qualifiers.
But the 34-year-old insists thoughts of playing in South Africa next summer haven't entered his head just yet. "At this moment, I'm just thinking about playing in every single game that I can. I've missed too many England games over the past few years," he said. "But the most important thing is helping England qualify for the World Cup.
"We have taken it for granted that we've been there at almost every major tournament. We seem to have a feeling in this country of, 'Oh, quarter-finals, it's a disgrace, we've got to get past that,' and yes, we do have to get past that. But first things first, we've got to qualify, and it's hard work qualifying.
"Traditionally, we have tended to play in a more rigid system, but the boss has developed a more flexible and fluid team and the players are thriving."
I'll be a crock of gold
Michael Owen reckons he can become the bargain signing of the summer after insisting his Manchester United career will be full of goals – not injuries. Owen was officially paraded by the Premier League champions yesterday and immediately went on the offensive as he hit back at his critics. “The thing that angers me is the injury thing," he said. “There is no doubt that I have had injuries in my career, but then most players have. I’ve played over 500 games for club and country, so that says it all. Owen, who jets out on a pre-season tour of the Far East with his new United team-mates on Thursday, added: “I am hungry to do well. If this challenge doesn’t create a hunger and put a spring in your step and a smile on your face, then nothing will. I am as hungry as I have ever been to succeed and I honestly believe I can still do well in a top team like Manchester United."
Neil Johnston, Daily Star
In other news, former Red Carlos Tevez will sign for Manchester City, subject to a medical. The Argentine striker is expected to sign a five-year deal at Eastlands and will wear the No.32 shirt, just as he did at Old Trafford.
Despite the fact they already have six strikers, City are reportedly set to launch a £25million bid for Arsenal's Emmanual Adebayor.
Sir Alex Ferguson's decision to award Manchester United's No7 shirt to Michael Owen this week was an interesting move – perhaps another step on his road to redemption. Variously described as "iconic" and "prestigious", the shirt number Owen inherited has been the emblem of a long and distinguished line of United's most cherished players, from Johnny Berry, George Best and Steve Coppell back when it was routinely put on the dressing-room peg of the outside right, to Bryan Robson, Eric Cantona, David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo, who established it as a brand in the era when names started to appear on the back of shirts as a marketing exercise.
Only 30 years ago numbering, by and large, still followed the pattern established in the late 1920s based on position. For most of their Manchester United careers, Bobby Charlton and Best would wear the shirt most appropriate to the role they had been given and would shift, sometimes from week to week, up and down from seven to 11.
My first memory of anyone tinkering with it substantially was the Liverpool side of the mid-1970s, who would send out Ray Kennedy to play on the left side of midfield with a centre-half's five on his back and Steve Heighway further up the same flank with a centre-forward's nine. They were also the first team to have a player, Kevin Keegan, who fetishised the No7. Football is full of superstitious folk but he treated his number as a talisman, something he needed to get the best out of him.
With England it took a while for Keegan to establish ownership of the number and it was not until Alan Ball was jettisoned in 1975 that it became his personal property. At the 1982 World Cup, he was excepted from Ron Greenwood's decision to hand out the numbers, goalkeepers apart, in alphabetical order, although much good it did him when he belatedly made his only appearance in the tournament as a late substitute in the eliminator against Spain and screwed his elementary header wide of the post.
The other substitute that night, Trevor Brooking, came on wearing No3 which, for the best inside-forward of the 1970s, looked profoundly wrong. Another anomaly of the alphabetic system was the Argentina midfielder Norberto Alonso trotting out during the 1978 World Cup in the No1 shirt and Ossie Ardiles, the very antithesis of the rugged right-back, in No2. Now, when vanity numbers are commonplace, I wouldn't bat an eyelid at such an oddball scheme, but back then it felt demeaning of a flamboyant player to stick him in a defender's jersey.
That sense of unease was down to stereotypes – that all No11s should be silky left-wingers and all No5s swan-necked centre-backs. It was also about wanting to preserve a sense of order and tradition for a bewilderingly conservative kid who liked things pretty much as they were.
Anarchy truly set in with the Spurs team that won back-to-back FA Cups in 1981 and 1982 with the No9, Tony Galvin, wide on the left, the No2, Chris Hughton, at left-back and the No11, Garth Crooks, up front. A Tottenham‑supporting friend saw it as a symbol of his team's flair. It just made me cringe.
Since 1993, when the Premier League sanctioned squad numbering as a means to flog even more overpriced nylon, anything goes. For a few years there was a charming naivety from British managers about the system. In 2000 David O'Leary, in another of his unctuous homilies about his Leeds team's youth and lack of resources, pointed to the gulf between his side and Milan's by highlighting the fact Francesco Coco wore the No77 shirt. The odds against his team had been so overwhelming, he said, that the opposition could afford to have 77 members in their squad. No one pointed out that Coco was running around with the year of his birth on his back.
There have always been coveted numbers – the legend of the No9, for example, has flourished in Newcastle and since Puskas the No10 is imbued with cachet and mystique. Bill Shankly joked his Preston No4 had otherworldly properties, telling his successor in it, Tommy Docherty, "Congratulations. You are now the greatest right-half in the world. Just put the No4 shirt on and let it run round, it knows where to go".
Some, such as Johan Cruyff's 14, are worn in tribute and others are the equivalent of the rabbit's foot, none more so than Iván Zamorano who, when forced out of the No9 at Inter by the arrival of Ronaldo, added a plus sign between the one and eight of his 18 so as not to offend the footballing fates.
Perhaps seven will turn out to be Owen's lucky number. It certainly beats carrying a horseshoe around in his jockstrap.
Y is the top 2 article the same?
Michael Owen has launched a passionate defence of his conduct at Newcastle.
Owen ended four unhappy years at St James' Park this summer when his career appeared to move backwards at a rapid rate.
A couple of major injuries in his early years did not help and then when he was fit, the Magpies had descended into chaos under the ownership of Mike Ashley, ultimately ending in the humiliation of relegation into the Championship.
As his contract ran out, Owen knew he would not be following them and instead took up a surprise offer from Sir Alex Ferguson to join Manchester United.
But the star striker has been stung by repeated criticism of his behaviour, particularly helicopter flights back to his Cheshire home from the north-east and a fledgling horse-breeding business being run by his wife Louise.
Both have been used as evidence Owen's heart was not with the Tyneside outfit, a damning verdict on their £18million record signing which he is anxious to counter.
"You learn to understand the reaction but if you do step back, you think it is strange or unfair," he said.
"When you are being relegated, nobody is interested in listening to you. But I knew it was all to do with me not scoring.
"If you don't score and you don't win, you are wrong to have a helicopter and fly home each week to see your kids. You are wrong to have a business outside of football. You are wrong to plan for the future.
"If the goals had been going in I would have been a great lad, popping home to see my three kids and be a family man on a Tuesday after training. I would have been thoughtful and innocent little things would not be misrepresented."
In fact, for the team Newcastle became, returns of 13 and 10 goals respectively during the past two seasons were not bad totals.
Yet Owen knows he was capable of much better, as he hopes to prove at Old Trafford.
His affection for Newcastle ensures he will not launch an all-out attack on a club that seems on a mission to self-destruct.
However, mere commonsense dictates the backdrop to live on Tyneside meant producing his best form was impossible.
"There is no hiding from the fact it was disappointing at Newcastle because the team got relegated," he reflected.
"I played 33 games, so I will not shirk my share of the blame. What I would say is whether you are the best or worst player in the world you are a human being. You are affected by the surroundings, the mood of people, by confidence.
"I could have done more and score more goals but the team was lacking in confidence. It was not playing well, there was a manager every two minutes and unrest at board level.
"In a situation like that you cannot name many players who have played well on a consistent basis over the years. Everyone's standards drop.
"I don't want to say I was dragged down by Newcastle because I have a lot of respect for the club and had some good times but I do believe I play better in a team full of confidence."
As a striker, once things start to go wrong, individually and collectively, blame soon follows at Newcastle.
The club of Jackie Milburn, Malcolm MacDonald, Kevin Keegan and Alan Shearer needs its forwards to be heroes. That naked desire is why so many turned out to welcome Owen's arrival from Real Madrid four years ago.
That a cruciate knee ligament injury suffered at the 2006 World Cup with England kept him out for a year only made matters worse.
"It was Newcastle and it was me, so maybe it was worse," he said.
"If another player had flown home to see their family it would not have been such news.
"They had paid a record fee for me and I broke my foot trying to score goals for them. But when I was out for another year playing for England it hindered me.
"Probably if I had done my knee playing for Newcastle, there may have been more support.
"I was on the back foot straight away and reversing it was difficult."
Wayne Rooney is predicting Michael Owen's move to Manchester United will give the England sharp-shooter a new lease of life.
Owen's career appeared to be heading for the buffers until Sir Alex Ferguson stepped in with the offer of a two-year contract which could turn out to be one of the Scot's masterstrokes.
Nothing too much will be read into Owen's goal at the Bukit Jalil Stadium that gave United a 3-2 win over a Malaysian Select XI they will also face in the same stadium later today.
However, Rooney can sense his old international colleague is ready to explode again.
"Over the last couple of years Michael has had some criticism but it would have been difficult for any player to score in the Newcastle team he was in last season," said Rooney.
"He looked really sharp in training. He is working very hard and you could see by the way all the lads celebrated with him how pleased they were for him when he scored.
"This move will give him a new lease of life."
The same could also be said for Rooney, who opened United's account with a tap-in on Saturday and then set Nani up for their second.
For if one man is going to profit from Cristiano Ronaldo's world record £80million exit, it is surely Rooney given he can now abandon his station on the wing and resume a forward role in which Fabio Capello feels he has few peers in the world game.
"We haven't spoken about it but I am sure that is where I'll play," he said.
"Everyone knows it's my best position. I enjoy it more than being out on the flanks - it's less work and you get more chances to score. As a forward that's what you want."
Like Owen, Rooney knows it will take a collective effort to cover the 67 goals from the last two seasons Ronaldo left as his legacy before moving to Real Madrid.
The pair might have had their differences on the international field, but Rooney's respect for the Portugal superstar's abilities is immense.
"I have spoken to Cristiano since he left and wished him well," he said.
"He was a great player for Manchester United but it was his wish to go and I think the club have respected that.
"Both for the club and Cristiano himself it was a good deal. The money we got for him was unbelievable.
"We don't feel let down by him. We always knew he was going to go sometime."