Despite not being the most tactically astute football league across Europe, the English Premier League is still considered to be the most admired and competitive league. Football fans believe it is the toughest place to play in, while professional footballers dream of playing in it at least once in their lifetime.
The rough weather of England, where physical football thrives to make playing goalscoring difficult, contributes massively to the entertainment quotient and popularity of the English Premier League across the globe. Since coming into existence in 1992, the English Premier has seen some world-class goalscorers like Alan Shearer, Thierry Henry, Sergio Aguero and more, whose rich legacy is found difficult to be matched.
The greatest goalscorer in the Premier League history
Newcastle United star Alan Shearer could rightly be crowned the greatest ever goalscorer in the English Premier League history, not only for the sheer number of goals that he scored for Newcastle and Blackburn Rovers but also for redefining English football with his unparalleled goalscoring ability.
While Newcastle star Andrew Cole first crossed the 30-goal benchmark in a single season in the 1993/94 season, Shearer attained the benchmark in the 1994/95 season before scoring 31 goals to become the Premier League top scorer in the 1995/96 season. It is also to be noted that the first three seasons of the Premier League were 42 games a season, which has since reduced to 38 games a season.
Though the English forward couldn’t cross 30 goals in the 1996/97 Premier League season, Shearer remained the top scorer with 25 goals when he moved to Newcastle. He played 441 Premier League games in his career, tallying 260 goals – a record that still stands today. Shearer couldn’t replicate the feat for the England national football team though, where he has 30 goals.
Premier League top scorer: The most consistent one
Apart from Newcastle star Alan Shearer, the late 90s era of the English Premier League saw stupendous goalscorers like Manchester United star Dwight Yorke, Leeds United’s Jimmy Floyd Hasselbank and more. Still, none could match Shearer’s consistency in the Premier League like Thierry Henry, yet another celebrated Premier League top scorer.
The French forward, who played for Arsenal, holds the record for winning the most Golden Boot awards – four – in the Premier League. Partnering Dutch legend Dennis Bergkamp up front, Henry went on to become the top scorer in 2001/02 (25), 2003/04 (30), 2004/05 (25) and 2005/06 (27) seasons. Thierry Henry ended his Premier League stint with 175 goals in 258 games.
Henry’s only rival in the early 2000s was Manchester United’s Ruud van Nistelrooy, who was the top goalscorer in the 2002/03 season with 25 goals. Henry’s biggest USP was his ability to provide assists in equal numbers as his goals. The Frenchman ended his Premier League stint with 74 assists and remained the only player to score 20+ goals and provide 20+ assists in a single season.
Among the other consistent Premier League goalscorers is Tottenham Hotspur’s Harry Kane, who has won the Premier League Golden Boot thrice already. Kane is the only player who is currently playing and yet ranks in the top 10 goalscorers of all time.
Premier League top scorer: The most prolific one
The Premier League has been limited to 20 teams and 38 leagues games since the 1996/97 season, and with it, the number of goals per season also dried up. Sunderland’s Kevin Phillips managed to reach the 30-goal landmark for the first time since 1996, in the 1999/00 season. It took another three seasons before Henry tallied 30 goals to become the top scorer in the 2003-04 season.
While the 30-goal milestone in 38 Premier League games was breached by Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Liverpool’s Luis Suarez thereafter, the most prolific goalscorer in a single Premier League season is Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah.
The Egyptian international announced his arrival in the Premier League by firing in a whopping 32 goals in the 2017-18 season, a goal tally yet to be matched or broken.
Premier League top scorer from every season
| Season | Player | Clubs | Goals |
| 1992/93 | Teddy Sheringham | Tottenham Hotspur | 22 |
| 1993/94 | Andrew Cole | Newcastle United | 34 |
| 1994/95 | Alan Shearer | Blackburn Rovers | 34 |
| 1995/96 | Alan Shearer | Blackburn Rovers | 31 |
| 1996/97 | Alan Shearer | Newcastle | 25 |
| 1997/98 | Dion Dublin, Michael Owen, Chris Sutton | Coventry City, Liverpool, Blackburn Rovers | 18 |
| 1998/99 | Dwight Yorke, Michael Owen, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbank | Manchester United, Liverpool, Leeds United | 18 |
| 1999/20 | Kevin Phillips | Sunderland | 30 |
| 2000/01 | Jimmy Floyd Hasselbank | Chelsea | 23 |
| 2001/02 | Thierry Henry | Arsenal | 24 |
| 2002/03 | Ruud van Nistelrooy | Manchester United | 25 |
| 2003/04 | Thierry Henry | Arsenal | 30 |
| 2004/05 | Thierry Henry | Arsenal | 25 |
| 2005/06 | Thierry Henry | Arsenal | 27 |
| 2006/07 | Didier Drogba | Chelsea | 20 |
| 2007/08 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Manchester United | 31 |
| 2008/09 | Nicolas Anelka | Chelsea | 19 |
| 2009/10 | Didier Drogba | Chelsea | 29 |
| 2010/11 | Carlos Tevez, Dimitar Berbatov | Manchester City, Manchester United | 20 |
| 2011/12 | Robin van Persie | Arsenal | 30 |
| 2012/13 | Robin van Persie | Manchester United | 26 |
| 2013/14 | Luis Suarez | Liverpool | 31 |
| 2014/15 | Sergio Aguero | Manchester City | 26 |
| 2015/16 | Harry Kane | Tottenham Hotspur | 25 |
| 2016/17 | Harry Kane | Tottenham | 29 |
| 2017/18 | Mohammed Salah | Liverpool | 32 |
| 2018-19 | Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah | Arsenal, Liverpool | 22 |
| 2019/20 | Jamie Vardy | Leicester City | 23 |
| 2020/21 | Harry Kane | Tottenham | 23 |
Top Premier League goalscorers of all time
The history of the Premier League is filled with examples of players who could never become the top scorer in any particular season but ended up becoming legends for their respective clubs by scoring the most goals in the team’s history.
From Wayne Rooney to Frank Lampard to Spurs’ super-sub Jermain Defoe, the Premier League has seen some of the most consistent goalscorers across the globe but mostly from England.
| Rank | Player | Club(s) | Goals |
| 1 | Alan Shearer | Newcastle, Blackburn Rovers | 260 |
| 2 | Wayne Rooney | Everton, Man United | 208 |
| 3 | Andrew Cole | Sunderland, Fulham, Blackburn Rovers, Manchester City, Man United | 187 |
| 4 | Frank Lampard | Manchester City, Chelsea | 177 |
| 5 | Thierry Henry | Arsenal | 175 |
| 6 | Sergio Aguero | Man City | 164 |
| 7 | Robbie Fowler | Liverpool, Leeds United, Man City | 163 |
| 8 | Jermain Defoe | West Ham United, Tottenham, Portsmouth, Sunderland | 162 |
| 9 | Michael Owen | Liverpool, Newcastle, Man United | 150 |
| 10 | Les Ferdinand | Queens Park Rangers, Newcastle, Tottenham, West Ham United, Leicester City, Bolton Wanderers | 149 |
