Michael Owen has named his all-time World Cup XI, and the former England striker left out Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappe and Bobby Moore to make room for a team built around some of the game's most decorated names. Owen, 46, was asked by Mail Sport to pick a side from World Cup history and filled it with Gordon Banks in goal, Cafu and Roberto Carlos at full-back, Franz Beckenbauer and Paolo Maldini in defense, Zinedine Zidane and Sir Bobby Charlton in midfield, and Lionel Messi and Diego Maradona in attack.
The selection was the kind that makes football debates immediate, because Owen did not just leave out modern stars. He also passed over Moore, England's 1966 captain and one of the country's greatest heroes, even though he included Charlton and Banks from the team that brought England its only World Cup title. When asked what kind of front line that side would have, Owen summed it up simply: who would take the ball off this team?
The answer depends on how much weight you give to World Cup medals and decisive moments. Banks was central to England's win in 1966 and later made his famous save to deny Pele in the 1970 quarter-final against Brazil. Cafu lifted the trophy in 1994 and 2002, Roberto Carlos was vital to Brazil's 2002 triumph, and Beckenbauer captained Germany to glory in 1974. Zidane scored twice in the 1998 final as France beat Brazil 3-0 and then carried France to another final in 2006, while Messi won the World Cup in 2022 and Maradona did it in 1986, scoring that unforgettable run and goal against England on the way.
That is also where the friction sits. Maldini is one of the game's defensive greats, but he never won the World Cup and missed Italy's 2006 triumph, which only sharpens the argument over Moore's omission. Owen's XI carries 14 World Cup medals among the players he chose, but it also shows how even an England icon and former teammate of Zidane at Real Madrid can leave out a national legend when the brief is greatest-ever rather than greatest-for-your-country. The list is finished now, but the argument around Moore is the one that will keep running.
