Michael Dawson is a central defender who plays for Tottenham and the English national side. Dawson came through the youth squad and into the senior team at Nottingham Forest. He signed for Tottenham on January 31st 2005 and made his Spurs debut in a 2-2 draw at Liverpool on April 16th.
At Tottenham Dawson quickly formed a good partnership with fellow centre half and captain Ledley King. Because of King’s many injury problems Dawson has become the one to rely on in defense and eventually also as captain. Dawson had an exceptional 2009/10 campaign where Spurs qualified for Champions League and Dawson named the club’s Player of the Year.
England manager Fabio Capello picked Dawson as the only uncapped player to be part of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. He made his international debut in a friendly against Hungary in August 2010. On September 3rd he started in the Europ 2012 qualifier against Bulgaria but sustained a knee injury early in the second half. That injury kept him out for three months and led to a brief crisis in the Spurs defense. At the time they also had long-term injured Jonathan Woodgate and Ledley King out, in addition to some injury struggles for their other centre back covers in Younes Kaboul and William Gallas. In February and March 2011 Dawson won his third and fourth England cap against Denmark and Wales.

Michael Johnson is a midfielder who plays for English side Manchester City. He has also represented England at U-19 and U-21 levels.

Michael Carrick is a central midfielder who plays for Manchester United. Carrick joined United ahead of the 2006/07 season after two successful years at Tottenham Hotspur. His early 2009/10 season has been troubled first with an ankle injury, then with an achilles tendon injury. These injuries have also seen him miss out on the start of England’s Euro2012 qualifying campaign.

Michael Owen is a striker who plays for English side Manchester United. He has also been capped 89 times for England, scoring 40 goals. Owen came up through Liverpool’s youth team (even though he was a fan of Everton, where his father played) and scored in his senior debut in May 1997, at the age of 17. He soon went on to become a prolific goal scorer for Liverpool. He was the PFA Young Player of the Year in 1997-98 and European Footballer of the Year in 2001. (The only other English players to have won that award are Stanley Mathews, Bobby Charlton and Kevin Keegan.)
In the 2000-01 season Liverpool won the FA Cup, the League Cup, the UEFA Cup, the UEFA Super Cup and the FA Community Shield. The huge part he played in Liverpool winning those five titles also made him (the more unofficial) World Soccer Player of the Year, a title he is the only Englishman to have received. The next three seasons Owen still scored plenty of goals and Liverpool won the 2002-03 League Cup.
In August 2004 Owen signed with Spanish club Real Madrid. Owen only spent one season in Spain before moving back to the English Premier League. Newcastle signed him for a club record fee of £16 million.
Owen’s time at Newcastle was plagued by injuries, the worst sustained when he played for his country at the 2006 FIFA World Cup. That anterior cruciate ligament injury kept him out for almost the entire 2006-07 season. Owen’s contract with Newcastle expired in June 2009 and he went on a free transfer to Manchester United. Although not normally a regular starter for United he has scored several important goals for them, including a hat-trick in a Champions League match vs Wolfsburg in December 2009.
In his first season with United they won the 2009-10 League Cup. After winning the 2010-11 Premier League Owen has signed for another year with Manchester United.

Michael Ballack is a midfielder who plays for German side Bayer Leverkusen and Germany. Ballack is one of the longest serving captains in the German national team. He lost the captaincy to Philipp Lahm prior to the 2010 FIFA World Cup, due to injury making him miss the tournament. Ballack has played for several German teams but also played for English side Chelsea between May 2006 and May 2010. He picked up his injury, which made him miss the World Cup, in the FA Cup final (his last match for Chelsea). Ballack returned to Bayer Leverkusen, for whom he also played for from 1999 to 2002. Ballack was superb in the 2001-02 season, both for his club and for Germany in the World Cup. He was Player of the Year in Germany and several clubs were chasing his signature, including Real Madrid. Ballack chose to go to Bayern München on a €12.9 million transfer. During his four seasons at Bayern München they won three doubles.