Robbie Fowler
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Robbie Fowler, born 9 April 1975 in Liverpool, is an English football player. He is a striker. He has played for England internationally, making 26 appearances and scoring 7 goals, but his England 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.
Fowler joined Premier Division club Liverpool F.C. as a trainee in 1992 and made his Liverpool debut in 1993. A part of the League Cup-winning Liverpool side in 1995, Fowler won the PFA Young Player of the Year in 1995 and 1996. Throughout the mid- and late-1990's, Fowler was considered by many the most natural finisher playing in England. In one game in 1994, he scored a hat-trick (3 goals) in 4 minutes and 32 seconds against Arsenal, still a Premiership record to this day.
Fowler 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. He was a hero to Liverpool fans, but unfortunately a combination of off-field controversy and training ground arguments with then-Assistant Manager Phil Thompson, led to his departure. It is perhaps more true to say that the then Liverpool F.C. manager, Gérard Houllier, was all along persistently seeking an excuse to offload Fowler, whilst publicly maintaining a pretence of wishing to retain the striker's services. Various reasons can be said to account for this idea's validity amongst many Liverpool F.C. fans, but one particularly obvious one was the need of the then manager to not lose boardroom support. Fowler's appearances for Liverpool were limited by the presence of England's first choice strikers, Emile Heskey (who cost Liverpool 11 million pounds in his transfer from Leicester F.C.) and Michael Owen.
Just one month after his hat-trick at Leicester, Fowler transferred to another Premier League club Leeds United F.C. for 11 million pounds. Dogged by injury and weight problems, although still contributing a respectable number of goals and assists for Leeds, Fowler transferred to Manchester City F.C. on 16 January 2003, sparking a feud between the Chairman Bernstein, and top shareholders Wardle and Makin.
Despite Fowler's relatively poor start to his Manchester City career, of late (December 2004-present), he has started to become a key member of the starting eleven, and on 28 February, 2005, he scored his 150th Premiership goal in the 3-2 win over Norwich City.
Fowler, as of March 2005, is the third highest scorer in Premiership history.
| Preceded by: Andy Cole | PFA Young Player of the Year 1995 | Succeeded by: retained |
| Preceded by: current holder | PFA Young Player of the Year 1996 | Succeeded by: David Beckham |