The England star burst onto the international stage in 1998, scoring against Argentina in the World Cup Finals. Since then he has became one of the most prolific goal-scorers in the English Premier League.
Michael was born over the Welsh border at the Countess of Chester Hospital to English parents, so he can play internationally for England. In fact, his grandparents are English too except one from Scotland.
So despite living all his life in Wales he technically had more chance of playing for Scotland than he did for Wales.
Despite his fame and wealth Michael still keeps his home in Hawarden, Flintshire, where he bought all but one house in a street for his family for nearly £750,000. His parents, brothers and sister live there.
He also bought another house in Sychdyn, near Mold, close to Northop Golf Course, another sport at which he excels. Michael first made his mark as member of an Under 11s squad in the Deeside Primary Schools League. Often playing against boys much bigger and older than him, he displayed a degree of skill and confidence that attracted scouts from professional clubs from England over to see him play.
At age 11 he re-wrote the goal-scoring record books for Deeside Primary School when he reached a total of 79 goals scored. This beat the previous record of 72 goals, reached 20 years previously by the other local Anfield legend, Ian Rush.
After his World Cup debut in 1998 Michael had to battle through two years of injury problems that threatened to derail his career. Refusing to be written off, he overcame his injuries and made a powerful return to form during England's qualifying matches for World Cup 2002, culminating in a hat-trick during the infamous 5 -1 victory over Germany.
In 2001 he was central to the success of the Liverpool side that clinched a treble of Cup victories. In all competitions for Liverpool he scored more than 100 goals.
A new chapter began for Michael in August 2004 when he signed for Real Madrid but within a year he was back in Britain, this time signing for Newcastle United for a club record £17m fee.
World Cup 2006 proved to be disastrous for Michael. He picked up a serious knee injury in Germany which forced him to return home.
After a long road back to fitness it was the start of the 2007-8 season in which he stormed back on to the scene - finally getting back to his goal scoring ways for Newcastle and taking his tally over 40 for England in the Euro 2008 qualifiers.
It was in 2007 that he started his venture in horse racing, buying a £2m stables and training facility called Manor House at Malpas, Cheshire, and spending a further £2m on preparing it for business. He also prepared the fields around his home in Sychdyn to be used for his 'blood stock'.
1st Game for England: February 11 1998, vs Chile
1st Goal scored for England: May 27 1998 vs Morocco
1st Goal scored in the World Cup Finals: June 22 1998, England vs Romania
World Cup trivia: Michael's father Terry, who played for 'local' teams Chester and Everton, also played for Rochdale along with Charlie Hurst and Alan Ball snr. Football fans will know that their sons went on to play professional football and were in England's 1966 World Cup winning team.
Superstar footballer, playing for England and Newcastle Utd.
