Robbie Fowler heading to Sydney FC: reports

Liverpool great Robbie Fowler is expected to become the new marquee player for Australian A-League champions Sydney FC, reports said on Friday.

The playing future of Fowler, who turns 35 on Friday, has been thrown open in the wake of North Queensland Fury’s financial restructuring.

Reports said the Townsville-based Fury in Queensland’s tropical north were no longer in a position to meet his wages, believed to be about 750,000 dollars (695,000 US) per season.

The Sydney Morning Herald said Sydney FC on Thursday officially approached the former England international striker to replace ex-Australian international John Aloisi as their new marquee player for next season.

Fowler, currently attending coaching courses in England, said he wanted to keep playing in the A-League regardless of the outcome of his situation with North Queensland Fury.

“I loved it there, it was brilliant,” Fowler told the Herald. “It wasn’t just Townsville, it was Australia.”

His agent George Scott told The Daily Telegraph that Fowler was keen to play at least one more season in Australia.

Reports said Fowler has been talking with Fury officials and had indicated at one stage his interest in becoming player-coach following the departure of head coach and former Glasgow Rangers midfielder Ian Ferguson to Perth Glory to take up an assistant coaching position.

But the newspaper said that scenario was effectively ruled out by the Football Federation Australia, who are the Fury’s interim majority owners, and Fowler is now set to accept Sydney FC’s offer.

While the Fury have been saved by the FFA’s intervention, the A-League is set to lose a club, with Gold Coast United backer, mining magnate Clive Palmer, officially withdrawing his support this week, the Herald said.

The newspaper said unlike the situation with the Fury, the FFA has little interest in mounting a rescue operation, with the competition now likely to remain a 10-team league with newcomers Melbourne Heart effectively taking the place of Gold Coast United next season.