5 Players Who Received A Hero's Welcome
4. Robbie Fowler - Liverpool
''Since I have left, deep down I have always wanted to come back and it has been a long time but Im glad to say Im back now. Leaving was probably one of my biggest regrets I have had in football. Im chuffed to bits. I mean, I cant really believe its happened again so Im ecstatic to be honest. Robbie Fowler, January 2006.
For the man who scored 171 goals in 330 games in his first spell at the club, the Second Coming of Robbie Fowler occurred in January 2006, five years after his exit. If there is one man who symbolises a natural relationship of love and harmony between club and player, it is the former Leeds United hitman. Idolised and worshipped by legions of Liverpudlians, Fowler was a God on Merseyside in his first spell at the club, so when news broke that he would be returning, suddenly Church looked a lot more enticing.
For his second debut, the match-day tickets neednt have read Liverpool v Birmingham City. There was only one reason the Liverpudlians were crammed into Anfield on that cold, midweek night and it wasnt to see the Midlands crowd. Receiving a standing ovation when substituted on, banners and scarves dedicated to Fowlers return were raised aloft, as the crowd hailed the return of the Messiah, and they were even briefly treated to a last-gasp bicycle kick 'winner' - harshly adjudged to have been offside.
The former Leeds United striker would go on to be see two more goals ruled out for offside, before breaking his mini-duct against Fulham in March the same team who he had scored his last goal for the Reds against 13 years previously. He went on to overtake Kenny Dalglish in the clubs all-time goal-scoring stakes before bowing out with 12 goals in 18 months on Merseyside.