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It's not for nothing that Robbie Fowler is known as God by those on the Kop. One of the most revered figures in Liverpool's recent history, Fowler is also one of the most naturally gifted goalscorers to have graced the famous red shirt.
 
His striking exploits are already the stuff of legend and his halo will never slip in the eyes of the fans who have adored him for so long.
 
Since scoring on his debut against Fulham in a 1993 League Cup tie, Fowler has enjoyed a long-running love affair with Kopites that has never wavered and shows no sign of abating.

An instinctive goal-poacher, he claimed his first league match ball after just five senior outings and ended the season as Liverpool's top scorer with 18. Excited Kopites viewed his arrival on the first team scene as divine intervention from up above and he certainly answered their prayers in the years that followed.
 
His first full season in the limelight saw his reputation blossom from promising youngster to fully-fledged superstar, this rapid elevation no doubt aided by a fastest-ever Premiership hat-trick against Arsenal, a Coca-Cola Cup winners medal and the PFA Young Player of the Year accolade.
 
He also topped the Anfield goalscoring charts again, breaching the 30 mark for the first time, and the so-called 'Toxteth Terror' was suddenly one of football's most feared finishers.
What Fowler lacked in pace and height he made up with an uncanny ability to sniff out goals. No opposition net was safe when he was in the vicinity of the penalty box. Close-range tap-ins or long-range super strikes, the 'Growler' was wonderfully adept at both and, as the goals flew in by the bucket-load, his stock rose higher and higher.
 
In 1995/96 he plundered over 30 goals for the second successive season, made his full England debut and comfortably retained his Young Player of the Year award. He outshone Eric Cantona on his over-hyped 'return', much to the chagrin of Sky TV no doubt, and fired the Reds to an FA Cup Final appearance at Wembley.
 
Four goals at home to Middlesbrough in December 1996 saw him hit the milestone figure of 100 goals for the Reds quicker than striking mentor Ian Rush, while another 30-goal haul the following season took Liverpool to the closest they've been to a 19th League Championship.
The classic 'local boy made good', Fowler's popularity among the fans was at a scale not seen since Kenny Dalglish was in his pomp. To them, he could do wrong, even if his infamous 'Spice Boy' image of the time brought him some unwanted off-field attention.

Controversy seemed to follow him on the field also during the late nineties but his faithful flock stood by him through the bad times. A lovable rogue, Fowler never forgot where he came from and in 1997 famously went public with his support for the sacked Merseyside Dockers during a UEFA Cup tie against Brann Bergen.
 
Two serious injuries then forced him to endure a lengthy and frustrating spell on the sidelines, which coincided with the emergence of Michael Owen. But although Fowler temporarily lost his 'golden boy' status, Owen could never boast the same kind of rapport with the Liverpool crowd and it was no secret who they favoured most.
With Gerard Houllier in sole charge Fowler encountered more problems and found himself a victim of the Frenchman's controversial rotation policy. He may no longer have been guaranteed a regular starting place but Houllier was well aware of his importance to the squad in terms of team spirit and handed him the captain's armband as a result.
 
In February 2001, Fowler scored a spectacular goal on Liverpool's first visit to the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff and became the first Reds skipper to lift a trophy in six years as Birmingham were beaten on penalties in the Worthington Cup Final.
 
It was to be the first leg of an unprecedented cup treble that season and Fowler also figured in the FA and UEFA Cup Final, coming off the bench in both and netting in the latter. Four days after the drama of Dortmund he was on the scoresheet again as Champions League qualification was clinched for the first time.
 
But despite these goalscoring heroics, speculation that Houllier wanted to sell him refused to disappear and in November 2001 the unthinkable happened; Fowler was offloaded to Leeds, against his will, in a record-busting transfer.
To say the Kop was shaken by this would be a gross understatement. Letters of protest flooded the local press and even the massive fee received failed to soften the blow.
 
When Fowler failed to set the world alight at Leeds and then Manchester City the anger at his sale subsided slightly but the general consensus remained that he was suffering from a broken heart at being forced out of his beloved club. He remained a big Reds fan and even travelled to Istanbul to watch the 2005 Champions League Final.
 
Talk of him returning occasionally popped up in the sports pages but was always shrugged off as pure fabrication. Until January 2006 that is; when Liverpool's prodigal son sensationally returned to a hero's reception.
 
His free transfer capture from Manchester City delighted Kopites. Fowler, himself, admitted it was a dream come true and it warmed the hearts of everyone when he finally pulled a red shirt once again.
 
His second spell at Anfield was never going to be as glorious as the first but over the past two seasons supporters have been treated to occasional glimpses of his past magic.
 
During the summer of 2006 Rafa Benitez extended his contract until the end of the current campaign and now the end of an memorable era is nigh.
But as he prepares to bid the Kop an emotional final farewell on Sunday maybe there could be one more glorious chapter of the remarkable Robbie Fowler story to be written.
 
Whatever the future holds, it's hard to envisage him being loved by the fans more than he already is but with a Champions League Final in the land of the Gods to come, who knows?
 
There could be no more fitting finale, that's for sure.
On behalf of everyone at Anfield and Liverpool fans all over the world, Robbie - thanks for the memories.

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shame he will always be remembered by all those outside Liverpool as looking like a cock with those silly plasters on his nose :D

people in glasshouses shouldn't throw stones

people in the glass house arent allowed weapons.

Robbie Fowler

;tightend;

Nice touch from Rafa to give him the captaincy today.  A goal in front of the Kop would be nice.

Although we're a goal down already...;ashamed; and Arbeloa missed a sitter when he should have scored OR passed it to God who would have scored easily.

He will allways be remembered by me for missing a penalty for City against Borough in the last game of the season. Cost us a spot in the Uefa cup.  :'(

Legend.

I am sorry but I cannot eulogise over this player

Clearly an extremely talented goalscorer but extremely dim witted. I was at Filbert Street the day he chose,on celebrating a goal, to mimic snorting coke along the white line marking the edge of the penalty area. I had to explain to my then 11 year old nephew what he was doing.....


less a "loveable rogue" to me than an object of disdain for my footballing affections

he then chose to waste his natural talent by putting in only half hearted efforts at Leeds and Man City. Although no fault of his own that Leeds chose to grossly overpay for his services in terms of wages it summed up to me much of what is wrong with the modern footballer that he chose to be so half hearted

If you asked me to eulogise say Steve Gerrard I'd happily join you, but Fowler...no thanks

he would have read about it in the papers the next day anyway.....

Imagine how good he would of been with a right foot as well as a killer left.

Will not be missed Arsenal fans, but some wonderful memories he has left.

true, but doesn't make it acceptable.

Not least trying NOT to win a penalty like many cheats would have.

I don't get it. Every time you open a newspaper there are pictures of models, pop stars, soap opera actors, cricketers and Blue Peter presenters doing drugs. When I was a kid Grange Hill had story lines about doing drugs. I imagine that children's TV these days still does the same? You get taught in school that drugs are bad. Your average normal 11 year old probably knows more about drugs than you or I do.

Robbie got loads of grief from people who said he took drugs. He always denied it. he was just taking the piss out of the people who were taking the piss out of him. Shows a sense of humour imo.

What's so bad about what he did?

As a footballer it was his way of responding to the abuse he and his family were constantly getting from members of the public and many parts of the media regarding his supposed drug use - which he consistently denies. 

If you had to explain it to an 11-year old, you could have just echoed Houllier's explanation, that he was pretending to eat the grass like a cow - or whatever he came up with ;D.

I'd find the actions of Roy Keane on Haaland, and also Di Canio's facist salutes a little harder to explain to an 11-year old.

if this is the case (and I have no reason to doubt you) it just shows how one persons perception of another (ie mine on Fowler) can be coloured by only part of the overall picture as I did not realise this context.

I would be really interested if someone knew the real story behind Fowler and the reason hes dicked the last 6 years of his career?

For me one of the very best goalscorers I ever saw, he was right up there with the Shearers and Coles.

But for some reason wether it be drugs/lifestyle or attitude he just lost it bigstyle. I tend to think its a character flaw that had seen his fall from grace into nothing more then  an average player at a relativly young age.

He has also leeched of Leeds for a good while which is poor form for a Multi millionare with over 100000 properties..

He's vehemently denied ever taking drugs.

The reason his form dropped was due to a couple of very nasty injuries that hit him when he should have been at his peak, and he never really recovered.  He was then sold to Leeds and scored 14 goals in 30 games - which isn't a bad return for a player who didn't even want to be there.  Then sold to City, where he looked even less interested a lot of the time, and only scored 20 in 79 games.

When you say he leeched of Leeds for a while, are you referring to his wages being partly paid by Leeds whilst he was at City?  It was Leeds who gave him that contract, and I'd look at Risdale if you want to blame anyone for that.  Once he was sold to City they aren't going to offer to make up the rest of his wages are they?  Not when there's a contract that states that Leeds will pay it.

All in all though, his story is a sad one.  Shearer was probably the best all-round forward in recent times.  Fowler was the best natural finisher.  That he never had a chance for England (due to injury and someone called Hoddle), was treated shockingly by Houllier, and that we never got to see him play at his absolute peak for long enough is a crying shame.

Great forward in his first spell at Liverpool, I can't count the amount of goals he scored against Villa, not a player you wanted to see in opposition.
However it looked like he gave up on his career when he left the reds to Leeds. Never seemed 100% committed. And to come out with the comment when he left City to go back to Liverpool, "i'll have to get fit now" was shocking.