He may be a born and bred Calgarian and the best soccer player that Canada has ever produced.
But as they prepare to watch Owen Hargreaves play for England in the World Cup against Sweden on Sunday, rueful Canadian coaches will be reminded that he was considered too timid to play for his own country in 1996.
"Hindsight is always 20-20," said Tony Taylor, the coach who decided not to pick Hargreaves for the Canadian under-17 World Cup team because he wasn't thought to be physically strong enough to compete against bigger players.
"I said to his dad I think the boy could play for Canada, but not at that time," Taylor said. "He just wasn't ready."
He was 16 at the time, and coaches in the Calgary soccer community said he was so upset by his failure to make the under-17 squad that it may have affected his decision to play for England rather than Canada. There is speculation that Hargreaves will start on Sunday.
"He felt that he was better than at least four other guys on the team," said Larry Poirier, a Calgary youth development coach who discovered Hargreaves when he was 11.
"His attitude was that he was going to go back the following year and shove it down their throats."
He never got the chance. In October of 1996, Hargreaves flew to Germany to try out for Bayern Munich, where he was later offered a professional contract after catching the eye of Bayern president Franz Beckenbauer.
Thomas Niendorf, the Calgary coach whose German contacts paved the way for Hargreaves's move to Germany, said Beckenbauer was impressed by his versatility and a mental toughness that has enabled him play at the highest level.
He proved that last year when he kept his composure after allowing Portuguese superstar Luis Figo to score when Bayern was playing Real Madrid in the European Champions Cup semi-final.
With Hargreaves in midfield, Bayern went on to win the Champions Cup after beating Valencia in a penalty shootout.
Niendorf believes that financial considerations may have played a role in Taylor's decision not pick him for the under-17 squad.
Sources familiar with the Canadian soccer system say a lack of funding forces top Canadian coaches to pick the more physically developed players, who they hope can bring immediate success, instead of the lighter, more skillful players like Hargreaves, who need time to mature.
That's because coaches at the national level face the prospect of having their budgets slashed if they don't qualify for major international tournaments such as the World Cup and Olympics.
"It would have been a financial challenge for the national team to bring in such a young player who could not be of immediate value to the team because of his physical immaturity," said Niendorf, who coaches a North American A-League team, the Calgary Storm.
In an interview, Taylor said the issue of Hargreaves's playing for England instead of Canada has been the subject of much misinformation.
When he began to prepare his under-17 team for the qualifying round, he said he expected to be working with a budget of $185,000, but that was cut to $115,000 by the time he got around to selecting the squad.
He also said funding was in such short supply that the team had to prepare for the World Cup by playing a warm-up tournament in Bermuda because the organizers were prepared to pay for the meals and the accommodation.
"My whole thing is to try and qualify," said Taylor, a respected coach who played for the English First Division club Crystal Palace in the early 1970s. When it didn't, his budget for the next season was cut to $10,000.
Taylor, now involved with player development with the Ontario Soccer Association, said a lack of funding is something top coaches have to accept. "That's just Canada," he said. "The [Canadian Soccer Association]can't raise the money because they have so many programs to fund."
Niendorf said Taylor should not be criticized for cutting someone who has turned out to be Canada's best homegrown soccer player. "He recognized the talent, but he was restricted by the system we have in place," Niendorf said.
Other coaches agree. "I can understand to a certain extent where he is coming from," Poirier said. "Owen was probably smaller than most of the other guys who were trying out."
After he was rejected for the Canadian under-17 team, Hargreaves had invitations to play for both the Welsh national team and for Canada when it was preparing to play in the Youth World Cup in 2000. Later that year, he was approached by Canadian national team coach Holger Osieck.
"We were told that he was going to focus on playing for Bayern Munich," said Morgan Quarry, a spokesman for the CSA.
"Nothing else mattered," Poirier said. "The question of whether he could play on the national team for Wales or England wasn't on his mind. Neither was Canada. . . . It just wasn't a priority for him."
After moving to Germany in 1997, Hargreaves was finally offered a professional contract in the summer of 2000 after Beckenbauer noticed him while he was playing for Bayern during an off-season exhibition tournament in China.
He was later approached by England's coach, Sven-Goran Eriksson, after Bayern won the European Champions Cup, and he made his debut for England in an exhibition game against the Netherlands in August of 2001.
Poirier said choosing to play for England was a brave decision because Hargreaves's mother was born in Rhyl, Wales, so he also had the opportunity to play for the Welsh team. He qualifies for England because his father, Colin, was born in Bolton, England.
"It was a gutsy decision because he knew he could play for Canada," Poirier said. "When he made the decision to play for England, he knew there were no guarantees and he might not end up playing for any country."
Still, Hargreaves didn't commit himself until he came on as a substitute during a vital World Cup qualifying game when England beat Germany 5-1 in Munich in September. "Once he stepped onto the field, that was it," Poirier said.
Hargreaves's mother, Margaret, said she and her husband are very proud of Owen, "as any parents would be."
However, after making a decision not to give any formal interviews, she would not say what her son's rise to stardom means to the family or Canadian soccer in general.
"We don't even know if he is going to be playing," she said. "Only Sven knows that."