Birthday present from Lazio for Owen - £5 million plus a year

SS Lazio owner met last week with Michael Owen's father to discuss a year 2000 transfer for the teenage sensation.

Owen was named Sports Personality of the Year by BBC viewers last night and is 19 years old today but his Liverpool form has dipped slightly of late as the club suffers their worst run of results since 1954. They lost 1-0 yesterday at Wimbledon in a Premiership match and Owen had a penalty saved.

Sergio Cragnotti, Lazio's mega-rich owner, has targeted Owen as his player of the future and wanted to secure a first refusal deal with Liverpool last summer for £1.5 million. That fell through but Owen's father handles the England star's business affair and Lazio were keen to establish contact again last week.

There is no prospect of a quick sale. Owen's partners in attack, German Karlheinze Riedle and Robbie Fowler are on the way out of Liverpool at the end of their contracts. Owen's deal runs until 2002 and although it makes him rich it lags well behind the Ronaldo-type wages package that Lazio will offer him - a basic £5 million a year tax free. Liverpool know that after thew Bosman ruling they dare not lose such an asset as Owen for free so they will listen to offers after the European Championship finals in 2000. By then Lazio hope to have sealed a move for the striker and Cragnotti's hands-on involvement indicates what a priority they have made Owen.