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He scored in both their League Cup and UEFA Cup final wins against Birmingham City and Alaves, but along with that year’s FA Cup and UEFA Super Cup, those five trophies would be the limit of his winners’ medals.

While one of Liverpool’s greatest ever strikers, he was just unfortunate to come through at the wrong time - in the early days of the Reds’ 30-year wait to be crowned champions of England again and at a time when the Champions League had not opened its door to the Premier League’s top three or four.

Meanwhile, limited to just 26 international caps and seven goals for England, he has arguably never received the full recognition he deserved outside of the red half of Merseyside.

Former Manchester United striker Andy Cole recently insisted Fowler was the greatest English finisher in Premier League history, greater than the likes of Alan Shearer, Harry Kane, Wayne Rooney and co.

"Oh, I loved Robbie, you know,” he said to Rio Ferdinand on the ‘Rio Presents’ podcast earlier this year.

After three successive 30+ goals season aged 21 or younger, he’d push the 20-goal barrier close in 1998/99, 2000/01 and 2001/02 as he battled back from injury only to find himself unfancied and unwanted by manager Gerard Houllier.

He then had to watch on enviously when Liverpool won the Champions League in 2005, having been sold to Leeds United four years prior.

And while he would return to his boyhood club in January 2006 on a free transfer from Man City, the forward, now the wrong side of 30 and past his best, was cup-tied as Rafa Benitez’s side won the FA Cup and left out of the matchday squad for the 2007 Champions League final.

Yet by this point, pulling on the famous red shirt once again had perhaps been enough for Fowler, who celebrates his 50th birthday today.

Netting seven times from 23 outings, the then 32-year-old would leave Liverpool for the final time in the summer of 2007 after being afforded a hero’s farewell at Anfield.

While never reaching the heights of his initial spell, Fowler’s return was a dream transfer that brought a smile to the faces of all those of Reds persuasion as one of their favourite sons returned, having never wanted to leave the club in the first place.

But having been Liverpool’s beloved talisman, how had it all gone so sour in the first place under Houllier?

“I mean when I’m not playing I’m not the nicest man in the world when I think I should be playing,’ Fowler said on talkSPORT’s The LineUp earlier this year when explaining where it went wrong.

“I’m one of those who will ask questions, so when you’re not playing I won’t be sat there with a big smile on my face.

So I went on, and as I ran past Frank De Boer, I shouted out, ‘Hey, mister, can we have a kick of your ball please?!’ It made both of us laugh, but I’m not sure Thommo was too amused.”

“I’d really had enough, and I was considering the Chelsea option again… there didn’t seem to much interest from elsewhere, and I was in a real dilemma about what to do.”

Fowler would ultimately attract interest from Leeds United, with the Whites prepared to pay £8m for the striker - though they eventually agreed to part with a then record £12m.

“I thought that was plenty considering that Houllier had failed to offer me a new deal and I only had 18 months left on my contract,” Fowler said.

Yet negotiations dragged on as the striker found himself left on the Liverpool bench, before what would prove to be his final appearance at home to Sunderland acted as the final nail in the coffin.

“The next match confirmed everything about Liverpool for me, and why I had to leave Anfield even though I loved the club and the city,” Fowler wrote.

If there were any lingering doubts, then they disappeared that wet afternoon as autumn turned into winter in the back end of 2001.

“No matter what I did, how hard I tried and how well I played, I was always going to be the fall guy and there was no escaping it.”

Fowler was in impressive form during his first half-season with Leeds United, before the Whites were dragged under by financial ruin, as he scored 12 goals from his first 22 appearances.

But he suffered an aggravation of a pre-existing hip injury in the following pre-season and did not recover until December, before being sold to Man City in January 2003 for just £6m as Leeds’s financial woes forced them into selling star players and they made a 50% loss on the striker after just one year.

Former Leeds United goalkeeper Nigel Martyn criticised the signing of Fowler last year, telling the Undr The Cosh podcast: We’d spent a lot, we bought Robbie Fowler but you’ve got to ask why are Liverpool selling to a rival?

Previously wanted by Chelsea, who were caught up in their own struggles at the time, the Londoners’ own fortunes were of course transformed overnight in the summer of 2003 following the takeover by Roman Abramovich.

But it is also another example of him not getting the appreciation or credit he deserved.

Yet Fowler enjoyed his time at Leeds, writing: “I can honestly say that for all the problems that arose at Elland Road, for all the mess the club was in, the year I had there was one of the most enjoyable of my career.”

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Until he was granted his dream return to Liverpool, that is, healing all old wounds and cementing his place as one of the Reds’ favourite sons once and for all.

Yet as great as Fowler was, you can’t help but wonder what more he could have been if circumstances had turned out slightly differently.
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