5 highest Premier League goalscorers never to win the league

The English Premier League, since its inception in 1992 from the First Divison, is one of the toughest and most physically challenging league in the world.

The premier division of English football has seen just 6 winners in its short history of 26 years with Manchester United dominating the league with 13 league titles followed by Chelsea with 5, Arsenal and Manchester City with 3 each and Blackburn Rovers and Leicester City with 1 each.

The glamour and outreach of the Premier League have seen many players from distinct nationalities plying their trade in the league. This list also includes many world famous players who made their very first steps into stardom in this league with Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale being the prime examples.

The Premier League though has seen many big names failing to win the title with only around 250 players able to say that they have won the league. The goal scoring record in the league is also another milestone that has stood the test of time for a very long time with Alan Shearer sitting at the perch with 260 goals for more than 12 years.

The Englishman though has had the fortune of winning the Premier League once, with Blackburn, in 1995 but not all players in the list can call themselves Premier League champions.

Here let's look at the highest Premier League goalscorers never to win the Premier League in their time.

#5 Robbie Keane (126 goals)

The former Ireland captain makes the list just ahead of another Tottenham Hotspur goal-machine Harry Kane. The striker started his Premier League career with Coventry City, moving for a then record fee for a British teenager, from Wolverhampton Wanderers.

The debut season saw the striker score 12 goals before moving away from the league for 6 months to Inter Milan before making his comeback with Leeds. With the Peacocks, Keane scored 13 times before moving to Tottenham Hotspur, in the 2002-03 season, where he made his name.

A six and a half year spell with Spurs was followed by 6 months in Liverpool before once again returning back to White Hart Lane for another 1 and a half years. Loan moves to Scottish giants Celtic and London rivals West Ham United soon followed before finally bidding his farewell to the Premier League with a loan move to Aston Villa from LA Galaxy.

A legend on and off the field Robbie Keane has made a total of 349 appearances in the Premier League and has scored 126 goals (91 Tottenham, 13 Leeds, 12 Coventry, 5 Liverpool, 3 Aston Villa and 2 West Ham). The Irish striker is the 14th player in the all-time list of goal scorers in the Premier League.

The closest the Irish international came to winning the Premier League was in the 2009-10 season when Spurs finished 4th. Robbie Keane was a part of the side that won the last piece of silverware in Tottenham Hotspur (League Cup Title).

#4 Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (127 goals)

A name that is synonymous with Chelsea FC before the takeover by Roman Abrahamovic, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink along with Gianfranco Zola were the two important players on the team before the influx of the Russian money.

The Dutch striker made his debut in the Premier League with Leeds United after moving from Portuguese club Boavista for a fee around £2 million. The debut season saw the Dutchman bag 16 goals for George Graham's team. The second season was even better as Hasselbaink scored 18 goals making him the joint golden boot winner for the 1998-99 season.

1999-00 season saw Hasselbaink moving to Spain with Atletico Madrid before returning to England, joining Chelsea in the 2000-01 season, after the Rojiblancos suffered relegation.

The debut season with Chelsea saw Hasselbaink score 23 goals and ending the season with his second Premier League golden boot. The next 3 seasons with the Blues saw the Dutchman scoring an impressive 47 goals ending his Chelsea Premier League career with 69 goals in 136 Premier League appearances before making his move to Middlesbrough on a free transfer.

Hasselbaink spent 2 seasons with Middlesbrough and the Dutch striker scored another 22 goals for Boro before joining Charlton Athletic in the 2006-07 season. It wasn't a great ending for the Dutchman as he ended the season with 2 goals.

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink ended his Premier League career with a total of 288 appearances and scored an impressive 127 goals (34 Leeds, 69 Chelsea, 22 Middlesbrough, 2 Charlton Athletic), making him the 13th in the list of all-time leading goal scorers in the league.

The Dutch goal machine came very close to winning the Premier League in the 2003-04 season with Chelsea after the Blues finished second in the league behind Arsenal. The Blues though won the next 2 Premier League titles after the Dutch striker left the team.

#3 Les Ferdinand (149 goals)

Another Tottenham Hotspur player on the list, Les Ferdinand started his Premier League career with Queens Park Rangers in the very first season of the Premier League in 1992.

The former English striker was a part of the QPR team in the First Division in the 3 previous seasons prior to the formation of the Premier League.

The striker scored 20 goals in his very first season in the Premier League, finishing runner up to Teddy Sheringham for the golden boot race, before adding another 16 and 24 goals in the next 2 seasons. Les Ferdinand left QPR to join Newcastle United in 1995 and enjoyed his most successful days at the Tyneside.

The very season with Newcastle saw Ferdinand scoring 25 goals and ended the season with the third place in the race for the Premier League golden boot while winning the PFA Player of the season award for the 1995/96 season.

The 2 seasons with the club saw Ferdinand scoring 41 Premier League goals before once again being on the move, this time to the club he supported as a boy, Tottenham Hotspur.

His time in North London was marred by injuries and lack of form that resulted in the striker scoring just 33 goals in 118 appearances for the club. A move to West Ham soon followed in 2003 but the move failed to achieve its purpose as Ferdinand failed to steer the club away from relegation finishing with just 2 goals in 14 matches.

The following season with Leicester saw the striker scoring 12 goals but once again the move proved futile as Leicester failed to stay in the league. A move to Bolton followed the next year and the now veteran striker scored his last Premier League goal with the Trotters.

Les Ferdinand ended his Premier League career with a total of 149 in 351 appearances, making him the 10th in the list of all-time goal scorers. The former English striker twice came close to winning the Premier League in the 95/96 season as well as the 96/97 season with both the times the Englishman finishing runners up to Manchester United.

#2 Jermaine Defoe (162 goals)

Jermaine Defoe is the only active player on this list as well as the third former Tottenham Hotspur player on the list after Les Ferdinand and Robbie Keane.

Defoe started his Premier League career with West Ham as the then-young striker scored 18 goals in 74 league matches before making his move to Tottenham Hotspur after the Hammers were relegated.

His first spell at Tottenham saw the striker scoring 43 goals from 139 appearances before moving onto to join Portsmouth for a season and a half before starting his second spell with Spurs.

The second spell with Spurs can be said to be a tad better than the first one as the striker bagged 48 league goals from 137 appearances. After almost 9 seasons with Spurs, Defoe made the move to MLS with Toronto FC but the Premier League was not done with the striker as Sunderland came calling for Defoe almost 6 months later.

At Sunderland Defoe was the go-to man as the former England international scored crucial goals to keep Sunderland away from the relegation zone. The Black Cats had Defoe to thank for, on more than one occasion in their desperate bid to survive relegation.

Jermaine Defoe scored an impressive 34 goals from 87 appearances, but the final season with the Black Cats proved futile as Sunderland went down while Defoe made the move to former club AFC Bournemouth.

A season and a half were spent with the Cherries with Defoe making most of his appearances from the bench. The January transfer window this season saw the striker moving to the Scottish league, joining former England teammate Steven Gerrard managed Rangers on an 18-month loan deal.

Jermaine Defoe has so far made 496 appearances in the Premier League scoring 162 goals (18 West Ham, 91 Tottenham, 15 Portsmouth, 34 Sunderland and 4 Bournemouth), making him the 7th in the list of all-time Premier League goal scorers. Defoe is also the second active player with most goals in the Premier League with Wayne Rooney leading with 208 goals.

The fourth-place finish in the 2009-10 season was the closest Defoe got to winning the Premier League.

#1 Robbie Fowler (163 goals)

One of the greatest Liverpool Players to never have won the league title

The only former Liverpool player in the list, Robbie Fowler was an absolute legend of the Premier League.

Fowler started his career with Liverpool a year after the inception of the Premier League. His debut season saw Fowler scoring 12 goals from 28 league appearances.

From the second season onwards, we saw the real Fowler, renowned for his natural goal-scoring ability and clinical finishing, taking the field as the Englishman scored 71 goals from 112 appearances before injuries started to hit him.

The next few seasons saw Fowler's appearances as well as his goal scoring numbers going down while the emergence of Michale Owen also left Fowler in the fringes of the team. These factors along with his difficulties with then manager Gerrard Houllier saw the striker being forced out of the team, joining Leeds in the 2001-02 season.

The striker's time at Leeds was marred by the Peacocks' severe financial problems as well as the sale of their best players to rival clubs. The former England international was sold to Manchester City in the very next season as the financial troubles deepened for Leeds.

Fowler's spell at City wasn't great as he scored just 21 goals in 80 appearances before making a fairytale return back to his beloved Merseyside with Liverpool.

Robbie Fowler finally bid his farewell to the Kop after another 2 seasons with the club, joining Championship side Cardiff City, before adding another 8 goals to his tally for the Reds. Robbie Fowler made a return to Premier League with Blackburn Rovers but failed to score with the striker making just 3 appearances.

The Englishman never fulfilled his huge potential with injuries playing a spoilsport to his career. The striker managed to finish third thrice in his league career and like every great Liverpool players of this generation was unfortunate never to get the coveted trophy.

Fowler scored an impressive 163 (128 Liverpool, 14 Leeds, 21 Manchester City) goals in 379 appearances in the league ending his career as the sixth highest goal scorer in the all-time list, a goal above Jermain Defoe.

Edited by Debjyoti Samanta