Robbie Fowler
Robert Bernard Fowler (born 9 April, 1975 in Liverpool) is an English football player who plays as a striker for Liverpool F.C.
He has been capped for England internationally, making 26 appearances and scoring 7 goals, but his career during Sven-Göran Eriksson's tenure as manager appears to have ended. Eriksson has tended to favour the combination of Michael Owen and Wayne Rooney as the first-choice pairing for England.
| File:Fowlerfulham.jpg | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Robert Bernard Fowler | ||
| Height | 5'9 (176cm) | ||
| Position(s) | Forward | ||
| Team information | |||
Current team | Liverpool F.C. | ||
| ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 18 Mar 06 | |||
Current
Fowler currently plays for Liverpool, whom he rejoined on 27 January, 2006, after leaving Manchester City F.C. on a free transfer. It took 9 games for him to score his first goal back in his beloved Liverpool shirt, the goal coming in Liverpool's 5-1 league win against Fulham on 15th March 2006. His current squad number is 11, although he has previously worn the number 9 & 23 jerseys.
Fowler, as of March 2005, is the third highest scorer in Premiership history, behind Andy Cole and Alan Shearer.
On 2 September, 2005, Robbie released an autobiography called Fowler: My Autobiography about his time as a footballer and the issues surrounding him. Excerpts published in newspapers included criticism of the England management.
Liverpool
Robbie was born on 9 April, 1975 and was brought up on the Toxteth housing estate. As a youngster he was an ardent Everton F.C. supporter. He was selected for Liverpool Schools Under-14 team and was spotted by Liverpool scout Jim Aspinall. He began training with Liverpool once a week and signed schoolboy forms with the club. Two years later he signed on as a YTS trainee and he turned professional in April 1992 on his 17th birthday.
He helped the England Under-18 team to win the European Championship in the summer of 1993 before making a scoring first-team debut in Liverpool's 3-1 win in a first round Coca Cola Cup tie at Fulham F.C. in September 1993.
Fowler scored all five goals in the second leg at Anfield two weeks later, making him only the fourth player in Liverpool's history to score five in a senior fixture. He scored his first league hat-trick against Southampton F.C. in only his fifth league game. His first thirteen games for the club yielded twelve goals, for which he was rewarded with an England Under-21 debut against San Marino in November 1993. He marked the occasion by scoring England's opener in the third minute.
Although unable to sustain his goal-a-game ratio throughout the season, he nonetheless finished his first season as the club's leading scorer with 18 goals in all competitions. A part of the League Cup-winning Liverpool side in 1995, Fowler won the PFA Young Player of the Year in 1995 and 1996, a feat equalled only by Ryan Giggs.
Throughout the mid and late 1990s, Fowler was considered by many the most natural finisher playing in England. In one game in 1994, he scored a hat-trick in 4 minutes and 32 seconds against Arsenal F.C., a Premiership record to this day. In 1996, he scored four against Middlesbrough F.C., reaching a century of goals one game quicker than his mentor, Ian Rush.
Fowler was ranked with Alan Shearer as one half of "two of the most awesome finishers in English Football" by commentators like Alan Parry and Fowler further sealed this reputation as he scored more than 30 goals for three consecutive seasons, up to 1997.
In 1997, after scoring a goal in a Cup Winners' Cup game, he lifted his Liverpool shirt to reveal a T-shirt supporting sacked Liverpool dockers, picking up a fine, but greatly increasing his popularity on Merseyside. That year, he also won a UEFA Fair Play award for admitting he had not been fouled at Highbury after a penalty had been given.
However, according to an article by Stephen Thanabalan in World Soccer magazine, together with colleagues like Jamie Redknapp, Stan Collymore, David James, Jason McAteer and Steve McManaman, Fowler & Co became known for their excesses and controversies off the field that saw the lot get labelled, the 'Spice Boys'- a derogatory term that signfied them as being underachieving playboys in the game. Fowler was cast with a scally reputation, linked to nightclub brawls (where he suffered several nasal fractures), sexual liaisons with soap stars (and even a politician's wife), lad culture behaviour, and most damaging of all, unsubstantiated claims of drug abuse.
Fowler's downturn in fortunes began in 1998, after an injury kept him out of action for half the season and caused him to miss a chance to go to the 1998 World Cup.
In 1999, Fowler was fined £60,000 by Liverpool and the FA Premier League for bringing the game into disrepute after he had mimed snorting cocaine off the white line of the penalty area while celebrating his goal against Everton F.C.
Defending himself, he said that he was getting back at Everton fans who had insulted him with false accussations of drug abuse. Fowler also received a four match suspension from the the FA for this incident. At the same FA disciplinary hearing, Fowler received a further two match suspension due to a separate incident in which he had taunted Chelsea F.C. defender Graeme Le Saux over rumours of the other player's sexuality, by waving his backside at him. The FA imposed a £32,000 fine for the two incidents.
When the team came under review by new coach Gerard Houllier, Fowler refocussed himself and won the League Cup, FA Cup and UEFA Cup with the Reds in 2001.
In October 2001, he scored his first league hat-trick for three years, helping Liverpool beat Leicester City F.C 4-1.
Despite his popularity with Liverpool fans, a combination of off-field controversy and training ground arguments with then Assistant Manager Phil Thompson, led to his departure to Leeds United F.C. There is some speculation that Houllier had privately wanted to dispense with Fowler, whilst publicly maintaining a pretence of wishing to retain the striker's services.
This may have been in an effort to maintain his boardroom support. Fowler's appearances for Liverpool had been limited by the presence of England's first choice strikers of the time, Emile Heskey and Michael Owen.
Leeds United
Lack of first team opportunities in the run in to the 2002 World Cup was a contributing factor in Fowler's transfer to Leeds United. The transfer went ahead just one month after his hat-trick at Leicester with a fee of 11 million pounds. The transfer did not turn out to be the fillip to his international career that Fowler had hoped for, although he did nothing to sully his 'most natural goal-scorer' reputation up till then, scoring 15 goals in 31 appearances for Leeds in his time there; a goal every two games.
It was his final months at Leeds that began a long fall in Fowler's goal returns. Fowler spent only half that season at the club, scoring 3 goals in 8 appearances as the club faced a looming financial crisis, but suffered a huge confidence blow when his market value diminished greatly.
Manchester City
Fowler took this confidence knock with him as he was transferred to Manchester City on 16 January, 2003, experiencing a relatively poor start to his Manchester City career. Fowler began his road back to form only later that year, shortly after big pal Steve McManaman rejoined him at the club from Real Madrid. Though the pair failed to rekindle their prolific partnership of yesteryear, and received much criticism from the fans for their salaries and excesses (including an off-field sex scandal), Fowler improved his fitness greatly by mid 2004. He then played notably well in the second half of the 2004/05 season, scoring his 150th Premiership goal in the 3-2 win over Norwich City F.C. on 28 February, 2005. However, his failure to convert a 90th minute penalty kick against Middlesbrough in the final game of the season prevented Manchester City from entrance into the UEFA Cup. Surprisingly, Fowler still ended the season as the club's top goal scorer.
Fowler missed the beginning of the 2005/2006 season, scoring on his comeback in a reserve match at the beginning of September. In the summer of 2005 City signed England forwards, Andy Cole and Darius Vassell, adding more competition for the centre forward position.
Fowler had been tied down with injuries until he scored a hat-trick when manager Stuart Pearce started him against Scunthorpe United F.C. in the FA Cup on 7 January, 2006. He had not been in the starting line up for Manchester City in the Premiership at the start of the 2005/06 season. He scored Manchester City's third goal in their famous 3-1 win against local rivals Manchester United F.C. a week later. However, this had seemed to do nothing for his chances of breaking up the partnership of Cole and Vassell, which Pearce seemed to favour. His goal celebration against United would prove to be ironic. After scoring he ran to the United supporters, holding up five fingers in reference to Liverpool's five European Cup wins, in comparison to United's two.
Return to Liverpool
On 27 January, 2006, Fowler rejoined Liverpool from Manchester City on a surprise free transfer. His return was warmly welcomed amongst Liverpool fans, who still hold Fowler in high regard. Fowler remained a Liverpool fan after he initially left the club. He was in the Istanbul crowd when Liverpool won the Champions League in 2005.
His contract is set to expire at the end of the 2005/2006 season, at which point the club and Fowler will review the situation. Fowler's return against Birmingham City F.C. in February 2006 was labelled by the press as the stuff of fairytales, and he came on to a rapturous reception in his first appearance for Liverpool in 4 years. Since his return, he had three goals ruled out for offside, but finally scored on 15 March, 2006 in a home game against Fulham, ironically, the same opponent club he scored his first ever goal against, while on his Liverpool debut 13 years earlier.
Wealth
Outside of football, The Official British Horseracing website lists Fowler as a major celebrity race horse owners, citing his and best friend Steve McManaman's company, The Macca and Growler Partnership.
In 2005, he was listed as one of the 1000 wealthiest Britons by the Sunday Times Rich List. It is true that business interests including a large property portfolio have resulted in Fowler becoming a very wealthy sportsman in Britain, but by no means is he the wealthiest. David Beckham and Nick Faldo, to name just two others, are wealthier.
Statistics
| Club | Season | Premiership | FA Cup | League Cup | Europe | Others | Total | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| App | Goals | App | Goals | App | Goals | App | Goals | App | Goals | App | Goals | ||
| Liverpool F.C. | 2005-06 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 1 |
| Manchester City F.C. | 2005-06 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 4 |
| 2004-05 | 32 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 33 | 11 | |
| 2003-04 | 31 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 41 | 10 | |
| 2002-03 | 13 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 2 | |
| Leeds United F.C. | 2002-03 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 2 |
| 2001-02 | 22 | 12 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 23 | 12 | |
| Liverpool F.C. | 2001-02 | 10 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 4 |
| 2000-01 | 27 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 48 | 17 | |
| 1999-00 | 14 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 3 | |
| 1998-99 | 25 | 14 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 35 | 18 | |
| 1997-98 | 20 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 28 | 13 | |
| 1996-97 | 32 | 18 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 44 | 31 | |
| 1995-96 | 38 | 28 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 53 | 36 | |
| 1994-95 | 42 | 25 | 7 | 2 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 57 | 31 | |
| 1993-94 | 28 | 12 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 34 | 18 | |
| Total | 353 | 155 | 31 | 16 | 35 | 29 | 45 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 464 | 213 | |
Honours
- 1994/95 League Cup
- 2000/01 League Cup
- 2000/01 FA Cup
- 2000/01 UEFA Cup
- 2001/02 European Super Cup
- 1993 UEFA Under-18 Championship
References
- ^ "Don't look back in anger" Observer Sport Monthly profile