5 of the best finishers in Premier League history

#4 Jermain Defoe

For the best part of two decades now, Jermain Defoe has been one of the deadliest finishers in the Premier League. Granted, Defoe hasn’t ever won the Premier League title nor even the FA Cup, and he hasn’t won the Golden Boot in his career – his biggest haul came for Harry Redknapp’s Tottenham side in 2009/10, 24 goals in all competitions with 18 in the league – but this list isn’t necessarily about the most goals scored, it’s about the quality of finishing, and in the Premier League era few have ever been able to finish quite like the product from West Ham.

Give Defoe a sniff of the goal and the ball usually ends up in there. He’s not the quickest, not the biggest and not the strongest, but he simply has a special knack of finding himself in the right position at the right time – it’s instinct more than anything and it’s largely a skill that can’t be taught.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about Defoe’s finishing record is the fact that outside of his two stints at Spurs, his goals all came at clubs who were struggling in the Premier League like Portsmouth, Bournemouth and Sunderland.

Defoe’s goal record is also excellent for England, particularly when you consider he was never truly the first choice striker for his country. He’s scored 20 goals in 57 appearances, many of those as a substitute, and even popped up when his country needed him in the 2010 World Cup to score the goal that beat Slovenia, allowing England safe passage through the group stage.

Both Harry Redknapp and Eddie Howe have described Defoe as the best finisher they’ve ever worked with, and that’s a pretty high compliment – particularly when you consider Redknapp worked with strikers of the calibre of Dimitar Berbatov, Robbie Keane and Peter Crouch.