Rowan Vine joined Exeter City on loan from Queen’s Park Rangers in August 2011. He had previously been at Portsmouth, Luton Town and Birmingham featuring in three ‘big money’ transfers. Rowan continued to be farmed-out to a number of clubs before playing in Scotland and finishing in non-league football in the south of England.   

Rowan became a Portsmouth trainee in 1999 and a professional in August 2000. His first-team debut came in December 2000 ahead of being loaned to Brentford in August 2002 followed by similar stints at Colchester and Luton Town. With Pompey now in the Premier League, a £250,000 bid from Luton was accepted in July 2005.

Scoring twenty-two league goals in eighteen months, Rowan was enough of a success for Birmingham City to pay £2.5 million for his services in January 2007. Not featuring much at St Andrew’s, he showed more enterprise when on loan at Queen’s Park Rangers and was to switch to Loftus Road permanently in a  £1 million deal in January 2008. Although he remained in West London until July 2012 he only made around fifty league appearances, half of which were as a substitute. Injuries, including a broken leg, hampered his progress and he was loaned to Hull, Brentford and MK Dons prior to joining Exeter City on a similar basis in August 2011.

By this time Rowan was nearly twenty-nine and had scored relatively few goals since his move to Birmingham four-and-a-half years beforehand. Making his Exeter debut in the Chesterfield game on 27 August 2011 Rowan appeared in six league and cup games without scoring up until the match against Bournemouth on 17 September 2011. He returned to Loftus Road and spent March to May 2012 on loan at Gillingham ahead of his release by QPR in May 2012.

Rowan then played in Scotland for St Johnstone, Hibernian and Morton before, from January 2015, moving into non-league football with Welling United, Havant & Waterlooville, Gosport Borough (three times), Basingstoke Town, Southall (twice), Hayes & Yeading and, in 2018, Hartley Wintney. He then dropped a notch or two with Alresford Town, Moneyfields and Tadley Calleva ahead of a coaching role with Hemel Hempstead and, in January 2023, a management position with Hartley Wintney.