The English Premier League has been home to some of the best players in the world.
And when it comes to goal scorers, there have been several legendary performers that have graced the division.
So let us look at the Top 10 Premier League Top Scorers of All Time.
Mind you we won’t be taking up statistics from the old First Division so do not be surprised at not seeing the likes of Jimmy Greaves and John Aldridge.
With that clarification out of the way, let us get started.
10. Michael Owen
150 Goals
Michael Owen’s Premier League career is very similar to Wayne Rooney and Robbie Fowler. The English striker started his career by winning two Premier League golden boots in his first three domestic seasons with Liverpool.
Owen’s consistency and prolific goal-scoring form won him the FIFA Ballon d’Or in 2001. In his Liverpool career, Owen scored 118 Premier League goals before earning a mega move to Real Madrid. After one disappointing season at Real Madrid, Owen joined Newcastle United.
In the black and white of Newcastle, Owen struggled for form and consistency that saw him become the best player in the world in 2001. He scored 26 Premier League goals in 71 appearances for the club.
In 2009, he was signed by Manchester United as a replacement for Cristiano Ronaldo. Even though he never managed to hit the Portuguese’s heights, we don’t think United fans will forget his winner against Manchester City.
Even though Owen struggled for form at Old Trafford, he did manage to win his first and only Premier League title in 2011.
In a career plagued with injuries, Michael Owen remains fondly remembered by football fans around the world.
9. Jermain Defoe
162 Goals
Jermain Defoe is a striker that has enjoyed goalscoring form at just about every club he has played for. The English striker scored 162 Premier League goals, which establishes him as one of the most underrated strikers of his time.
Defoe started his career at West Ham United, where he scored 29 Premier League goals before moving to Tottenham. In his two regimes at Tottenham, Defoe scored 91 Premier League goals. The Englishman only spent two seasons in Portsmouth, where he bagged 15 league goals.
Defoe’s last prolific season in the Premier League came with Sunderland in the 2016/17 season, in which he scored 15 goals. He scored 34 Premier League goals for the club. Defoe’s last Premier League club was Bournemouth, for whom he could only score 4 goals.
All in all, he had quite the satisfying career scoring at important times for his teams.
8. Robbie Fowler
163 Goals
Whoever has seen Robbie Fowler in his heyday would tell you that Robbie Fowler should have had the numbers of Alan Shearer looking at the way his career started.
Fowler’s career at Liverpool started like an absolute rocket. In his first four seasons with Liverpool, he was able to score 30 or more goals in three of them. In his second and third seasons for Liverpool, he scored 53 Premier League goals.
However, Fowler’s career just never kept going after that as he had to battle injuries and controversies off the pitch.
Fowler himself says that if it was not for a horrific knee injury in 1998, he would have become the best in the world.
Between 1997 and 2007, he could only register double-figure Premier League goals in a season three times.
Despite that, Fowler managed 163 Premier League goals in his career with three different Premier League teams.
7. Harry Kane
166 Goals
Since his double against Chelsea in January 2015, Harry Kane has established himself as the talisman of English football. The current England captain has scored 166 Premier League goals so far.
Like Thierry Henry, all of Harry Kane’s goals have come playing for a North London side. However, Kane is associated with Tottenham. In the 2015/16 and 2016/17 seasons, the former Norwich City striker scored 25 and 29 goals respectively.
In the 2017/18 season, Kane scored 30 goals in a Premier League season for the first time in his career. This was also the season in which he scored the 100th Premier League goal of his career.
So far in his career, the Tottenham captain has won three Premier League golden boots. The latest one came last season, in which he also registered the most assists in the Premier League season.
With him being the only active player playing in the Premier League on this list and committing his immediate future to Spurs, do not be surprised if you see him on the top of this list in a few years.
6. Thierry Henry
175 Goals
It won’t surprise many if we say that many Arsenal fans started supporting the club because of Thierry Henry’s brilliance in front of the goal.
The Frenchman’s Premier League career was solely based in the red side of North London, where he scored 175 goals.
Being bought by Arsene Wenger from Juventus in 1999, Henry managed to catch everyone’s attention the moment he stepped onto the pitch. The former Monaco man scored 24 Premier League goals in consecutive seasons from 2001 till 2003.
In the ‘invincible’ season, Henry managed to get to the 30-goal-mark in the Premier League season. In his Arsenal career, the French striker won 4 Premier League golden boots.
After he left the club in 2007, Henry returned to the red side of North London in 2011 as a loanee. His last Premier League goal came against Sunderland.
5. Frank Lampard
177 Goals
It is unbelievable that the only midfielder that makes the top 10 list of Premier League goalscorers is Frank Lampard.
The Chelsea midfielder and former manager truly had an eye for goal. He is Chelsea’s greatest ever goalscorer.
Starting his career at West Ham, Lampard moved to Chelsea in 2001. Once Jose Mourinho joined the club after the Abramovich takeover, Lampard’s numbers excelled.
From the 2005/06 season till the 2009/10 season, Lampard scored 20 or more goals across all competitions in every season.
Lampard’s best season in Chelsea colors was the 2009/10 season, as he scored 22 Premier League goals and led his side to a Premier League title win.
In his Chelsea career, Frank Lampard scored 211 goals, with 147 of those coming in the Premier League.
In 2014, he left Chelsea to go to Manchester City. In his lone season with City, he registered 6 more Premier League goals.
Lampard scored 177 Premier League goals in his career with three different Premier League teams. A legendary return for a midfielder.
4. Sergio Aguero
184 Goals
Sergio Aguero is a Premier League and a Manchester City legend. We don’t think any Man City fan will forget the ‘AGUEROOOO’ moment in 2012.
That moment was just the start of Manchester City igniting a power shift in Manchester.
Aguero won 5 Premier League titles with 3 different Manchester City managers. In his first season at City, he scored 23 Premier League goals and 30 overall.
Aguero’s first and only Golden Boot came in the 2014/15 season, in which he scored 26 Premier League goals. Even though there was always the talk of Pep Guardiola moving the Argentine forward on, Aguero continued to show professionalism and gave his all on the pitch.
Under the former Bayern Munich manager, Aguero scored 20 or more Premier League goals for three consecutive seasons. Even though Aguero had injuries along the way, it never affected his goal-scoring form.
In the 2017/18 season, Aguero became the greatest goalscorer in Manchester City’s history. After winning his 5th Premier League title in 2020, Aguero left Manchester City to go to Barcelona. He finished his Premier League career with 184 goals to his name.
3. Andy Cole
187 Goals
The biggest reason why Andy Cole makes this list is down to his longevity and consistency. Even though Cole played for numerous Premier League clubs, his prime came at Newcastle United and Manchester United.
Even though Cole started his career at Arsenal, his best season came in the 1993/94 season at Newcastle United. In that season, Cole scored 41 goals across all competitions.
His world-class performances resulted in him winning the Premier League golden boot for the first time in his career.
This was only a season before Sir Alex Ferguson approached him and brought him to Manchester United. At Old Trafford, he continued to remain consistent. From 1997 till 2000, he scored 20 more goals in every season across all competitions.
However, his numbers declined after he moved to Blackburn Rovers, and then at Manchester City and Fulham respectively. In his Premier League career, Cole scored 187 goals.
2. Wayne Rooney
208 Goals
It is hard to believe that Wayne Rooney is only the second player alongside Alan Shearer to score more than 200 goals in the Premier League, but still gets labeled an underachiever in his career.
Starting off his career in Everton, he quickly gained the spotlight at the age of 16 when he beat David Seamon from long-range.
On the next day, the British newspapers had the headline that said: “Remember The Name, Wayne Rooney”.
Clearly, that name will not be forgotten. Rooney’s move to Manchester United couldn’t have come at a better time in his career. Rooney’s two best seasons for United came in 2009/10 and 2011/12, in which he scored more than 20 goals in each season.
In his time at Manchester United, Rooney won five Premier League titles and a Champions League title. In 2017, he became Manchester United’s greatest goalscorer before returning to his boyhood club, Everton.
In just his second game on his return to Everton, Rooney scored his 200th Premier League goal against Manchester City. Until now, Rooney is the only player to score 200 goals and register 100 assists in the Premier League.
1. Alan Shearer
260 Goals
If we talk about the greatest Premier League goals, we don’t need to look past Alan Shearer.
The English striker was nothing short of prolific for Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United. He played a huge part in Blackburn Rovers winning the league in 1995.
Starting off his career in Southampton, his performances drew attention from the Newcastle scouts. In 1992, Shearer signed for Blackburn Rovers.
In his four seasons with Blackburn, the former England international scored 130 goals in 171 appearances. In three of those four Premier League seasons, he scored more than 30 goals, winning two Premier League golden boots in the process.
After his success at Blackburn, Shearer moved to Newcastle United and made a legendary career out of that move. Even though he didn’t enjoy a similar goalscoring form that he had at Blackburn due to injuries and suspensions, Shearer remained prolific as a striker.
His 1999/2000 season was the best in the black and white of Newcastle as Shearer scored 30 goals across all competitions. That was the only season he managed to get to 30 goals in his Newcastle career. Shearer scored 206 goals in 405 appearances for Newcastle United.
In the Premier League, he managed to score a humongous 260 goals, which is a record to date. Until now, we are yet to find someone who can match his goal-scoring form in the biggest league in the world.
Conclusion
As we see better players joining the Premier League every year, these records are sure to be toppled in a few years.
But even if the records of these players get broken, the memories they created on the pitch for their fans shall remain intact.
