Last month I travelled to the Westgate Hall in Canterbury for an evening with Robbie Fowler; the former Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester City, Blackburn, Cardiff and England striker.
As a Liverpool fan, Robbie was my favourite player growing up and he provided many happy memories scoring 120 goals before being sold to Leeds United in 2002. Such was his talent, he was given the nickname 'God' by his teammates and the Anfield crowd. Resultedly, his return to the club in January 2006 was seen as a 'second coming'.
Upon arriving at the Westgate Hall, a modern, refurbished venue I joined a long queue of people lining up to meet him. Whilst I waited, I deliberated about what to say during the 30 second interaction I would have with him. I had brought a copy of his autobiography (or as my mate had called it, the Bible) with me to sign and this is how the encounter went:
Me: Alright Robbie
I don't know what to call you, is it okay to call you God?
Fowler: "Ive been called worse", he smiled.
Me: Thanks for the memories. Could you sign my Bible please?
Fowler: Yes of course.
Me: Thank you. Are you going to be a future Liverpool manager?
Fowler: Yeah
Me: We're going to win the league and CL with you. Good luck in Australia.
I was awestruck to meet one of my childhood heroes - now Robbie looks younger than me!
And that was it; I'm sure that Robbie has dozens of these types of events each year and meets hundreds of fans each night yet for me it was a nice moment which i won't forget.
The evening continued with a question and answer session with former Liverpool and Republic of Ireland midfielder Jason McAteer which was entertaining and a pleasant surprise as McAteer had not been advertised.
Learning about Robbie's desire to test himself and prove himself as a manager was interesting as I had never considered him to be a candidate for the Liverpool manager's position until then.
I left feeling grateful to have met a childhood hero and with a feeling of excitement that Robbie Fowler's best Liverpool moments may be yet to come.