Liverpool’s Best Strikers (Part 2)
Robbie Fowler played in all 57 matches for Liverpool which includes the 1995 League Cup final match against ‘the Gunners’. In the crunch match, Fowler scored the fastest hat-trick with three goals for Liverpool in 4 minutes and 33 seconds.
Robbie Fowler was voted as the PFA Young Player of the Year for two consecutive years in 1995 and 1996 - an honour that only players like Wayne Rooney and Ryan Giggs have achieved till date.
Throughout the 1990’s, Fowler was thought of as England’s most natural and talented finishers. He proved this by scoring more than 30 goals in every single season till 1997.
Fowler’s partnership with Steve McManaman was legendary and it is widely believed that these two players were the main reason why Liverpool became a famous for scoring goals. Fowler had the habit of scoring goals from different distances and from almost every angle.
Fowler’s forward partner between 1995 and 1997 was Stan Collymore and in his auto-biography, he describes Fowler as the best player he has ever had the honour of playing against.
Collymore and Fowler became the most dangerous duos in English football over the years.
On the 14th of December, 1996, Fowler scored four goals against Middlesbrough, taking him to the 100 goal mark. This meant that Fowler reached the statistic in 165 matches - one goal less than his first strike partner Ian Rush.
One thing was true about Fowler and that was his behaviour which ranged from being commendable to deprecating. He won the UEFA Fair Play Award in 1996 but except for that, he was banned for a few matches for his apparent ‘controversial’ goal celebrations.
Fowler was injured and there were management issues floating about Liverpool. As a result, Robbie Fowler left Liverpool in 2001 and inked a deal with Leeds United. Fowler had scored 120 goals in 236 appearances for the club.
Five years later, on 27th January, 2006 Fowler rejoined ‘The Reds’ from Manchester City on a free transfer deal. Fowler always remained a true Liverpool fan to the core as he cheered them on constantly and was even present in Turkey when Liverpool won the Championship League in 2005.
The truth was that fans were overjoyed by Fowlers return and in the first match after his return against Birmingham City, large banners were printed which read 'god - number eleven, welcome back to heaven', and god was apparently Fowlers nickname when he used to be at Liverpool before.
Fowler played the first match with Liverpool after his return against Fulham and this was the first club that the player had played against in his first match for Liverpool around 30 years ago.
Later on, what appeared to be Fowler’s last appearance against Liverpool was against Charlton Athletic on 13th May when he was given the status of captain for that match.
He was only substituted into the game in the last two minutes before the game ended and when he entered the field, the crowd gave him a standing ovation.
Spectators chanted his name and the whole stadium applauded him for his years of service to the club. He finished his second Liverpool run with a UEFA Champions League runners up medal even though he was not even named in the starting eleven or in the eleven substitutes.
Robbie Fowler became a free agent once again on the first of July. When he retired, Fowler had scored 183 goals with 369 appearances in his career.
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