There are more than a dozen world-class, professional football leagues in the world, but none are more prestigious than the English Premier League (EPL). Based on factors such as talent production, number of goals scored, championship format and structure, and quality of the squads, coaches, and stadiums, Soccer Gear HQ listed the EPL as the best football league in the world in 2019.
A 2014 Bleacher Report survey also listed the EPL as the world’s best league. It is also the world’s most-watched sports league with a potential live stream and TV audience of 4.7 billion people. Since the league’s establishment in 1888, 28 players have scored at least 100 goals in the EPL. Below are its top-six goal scorers of all-time:
1. Alan Shearer
English native Alan Shearer is the EPL’s all-time leading goal scorer with 260 goals in 441 appearances through 15 seasons. The forward made his EPL debut with the Blackburn Rovers in 1992. He spent four seasons with the team before joining Newcastle United, where he spent the final 11 seasons of his EPL career.
Shearer scored 16 goals in his first EPL season and followed that up with 31 in 1993-94. He won his first of three Golden Boot awards in 1994-95 with 34 goals and was also named Player of the Season. He won the Golden Boot award the next two seasons with 31 and 25 goals, respectively.
He never reached the 30-goal plateau with Newcastle United. However, he topped 20 goals in four separate seasons with the team and scored 10 goals in each of his final two seasons with the team. The 49-year-old served eight games as Newcastle’s manager in 2008-09 and has also worked as a football pundit for the BBC.
2. Wayne Rooney
A 33-year-old native of Liverpool, England, Rooney ranks second all-time in EPL scoring with 208 goals in 491 appearances. He scored his first goal in 2002-03 with Everton, but he didn’t flourish as a goalscorer until joining Manchester United in 2004-05.
Rooney scored 11 goals that season and reached double digit figures in goals in each of the following 11 seasons. He scored a career-best 27 goals in 2011-12 and was named Player of the Season in 2009-10 after scoring 26 goals. He also won five EPL championships with Manchester United.
Rooney played one more season with Everton in 2017-18 following 14 years with Manchester United and is now in his second year with DC United of Major League Soccer (MLS). He has 23 goals in 48 MLS games.
3. Andrew Cole
Rooney and Shearer spent their entire EPL careers with only two teams. Alternatively, English forward Andrew Cole played with seven different teams over the course of his 15-year career.
He had the most successful year of his career in 1993-94, his rookie season, when he scored 34 goals for Newcastle United and won the Golden Boot award. In contrast, Cole failed to score 20 goals in any of the following 14 seasons.
However, he remained a serviceable goal scorer, particularly with Manchester United, for which he scored 83 of his 187 goals. He also played for Sunderland, Portsmouth, Manchester City, Fulham, and Blackburn Rovers. He retired in 2008.
4. Frank Lampard
Frank Lampard is a three-time EPL champion and four-time Player of the Month. He scored 177 goals and added 102 assists through 609 appearances with West Ham United, Chelsea, and Manchester City from 1993 to 2015.
The midfielder didn’t score a goal until the 1997-98 season and never achieved double digits in goals until the 2003-04 season. That year, however, started a streak of 12 consecutive seasons in which Lampard scored at least 10 goals. He was named Player of the Season in 2004-05 and scored a career-high 22 goals in 2009-10. He last played in 2014-15 and scored six goals in 32 appearances for Manchester City.
5. Thierry Henry
The top-scoring non-English player in EPL history, Thierry Henry is a 42-year-old native of France. He won four Golden Boot and two Player of the Season Awards in his 10-year career with Arsenal. He also won EPL championships with the team in 2002 and 2004.
Henry scored 17 goals in his first season with the club in 1999-2000 and scored at least that many in each of the following seven seasons. He scored a career-high 30 goals in 2003-04 en route to winning his first Player of the Season award. Henry, who scored 175 goals in the EPL, has also played for AS Monaco (Ligue 1), New York Red Bulls (MLS), FC Barcelona (LaLiga), and Juventus FC (Serie A).
6. Sergio Agüero
Sergio Agüero is one of only two players among the EPL’s all-time leading goal scorers that is still active. He is in his ninth season with Manchester City and had eight goals through the first eight games of the 2019-20 campaign.
The Argentinian forward has 172 goals through 247 appearances and has scored at least 20 goals in each of the prior five seasons. He won the Golden Boot award in 2014-15 with a career-high 26 goals.
