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Striker who scored 163 Premier League goals says Everton were ‘desperate’ to sign him

Charles Jones

Tue 28 January 2025 18:45, UK

Everton have missed out on their fair share of talented players over the years.

Kyle Walker nearly signed for Everton before joining Tottenham from Sheffield United, while Andy Robertson almost signed for Everton before going to Liverpool.

Robertson isn’t the only Liverpool great to nearly sign for Everton either.

Indeed, speaking on the Say it and Spray it Podcast, Robbie Fowler has been discussing his early career, and he says that he was actually courted by Everton as a youngster.

Fowler, as many may know, grew up as an Evertonian, but he rejected the chance to join the Blues as a youngster.

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Robbie Fowler could’ve joined Everton

Fowler spoke about the decision he had to make when he was making his way in football.

The striker says that Everton really did want to sign him at one point, but because of the connections he had at Liverpool early on, he chose the Reds.

“You know, I was going to go to Everton. And people think because I was an Everton fan, you know, I was going to go to Everton, were interested in signing me,” Fowler said.

“I went to Liverpool, never looked back. You get to maybe 14 and then you get a chance to sign school boy forms.

“And Everton were desperate to sign me again. But because I’d been at Liverpool and because I knew the staff and all the players and I think we had obviously Steve Heighway, Hugh McAuley and Dave Shannon were really the only coaches that were about. So the hours they worked were incredible.

So at that point you kind of forget about, in terms of you being a fan of Everton, it’s more about your career and stuff.”

Robbie Fowler Premier League stats

Everton really did miss out on an all-time great here.

Fowler would go on to become and absolute legend at Liverpool, so much so that he earned the nickname ‘God’ at Anfield.

Meanwhile, Everton struggled to produce a homegrown striker of that calibre until the early 2000s when Wayne Rooney burst onto the scene at Goodison Park.

Fowler was incredible during his time in the Premier League, and he could’ve been an absolute icon at Everton had he made a different decision.

Unfortunately for the Toffees, they missed out here and Fowler would go on to be an absolute star for their biggest rivals.

Who knows? Perhaps if Fowler had joined Everton the trajectory of both Merseyside teams would have been very different in the 1990s, but, we’ll never truly know how this would’ve worked out.