Premier League: Top 3 goalscorers of all time

Where does Wayne Rooney rank in this list?

The English Premier League is one of the most popular and highly anticipated leagues in the whole world. However, it is only 26 years old since its inception in 1992 when the clubs in the Football League First Division decided to break away from the Football League and take advantage of a lucrative television rights deal.

The decision was quite fruitful as Premier League is one of the most watched sports league in the world, and generated €2.2 billion per year from international and domestic television rights last season

The Premier League consists of 20 teams with each team playing a total of 38 games and operate on the system of promotion and relegation with the English Football League (EFL). Since its inception, it has seen 49 teams competing, with Manchester United winning the title a record of 13 times.

Thus in its 26 years of running, players from various backgrounds have notched goals although only a few have managed to do so consistently enough to earn a place as the top three goalscorers of all time in the Premier League

So without much ado let look at the top three goalscorers of all time in the Premier League.

#3 Andrew Cole - 187 Goals

Andrew Cole during his time with Manchester United

Andrew Cole's first two seasons in the Premier League was with Newcastle United, where he netted 43 goals from 58 matches. His performance in his debut season where he scored 34 goals from 40 games earned him the Golden Boot as the top scorer of the 1993-1994 season in the Premier League.

Cole after a successful spell with the Magpies joined Manchester United in 1995 at a transfer fee of £8.64 million. It is here where he establishes himself as a serious goal threat after netting 93 goals in his 195 appearances for the Red Devils spanning nine seasons. However, Cole left the Red Devils in 2002 and joined Blackburn Rovers where he stayed for three seasons and scored 27 goals.

Despite being a top class striker, Cole left Blackburn Rovers in 2002 and had a stint with various clubs such as Fulham, Manchester City, Portsmouth, and other lower league clubs before he retired in November 2008.

#2 Wayne Rooney - 208 Goals

Wayne Rooney during his time with Manchester United

Wayne Rooney is one of England's greatest ever players and played most of his time in the Premier League with Manchester United before he signed for the Major League Soccer (MLS) side DC United this year.

Rooney made his debut in the Premier League with the Everton team in the 2002-03 season, where he scored six goals in his 33 appearances. However, in the next season, he increased his goals tallies to nine from 34 games which got the attention of the then Manchester United's manager Sir Alex Ferguson.

Manchester United then signed Rooney for a whopping £33.3 million that summer, and what happened next changed United's fortune drastically as in the first season itself he scored 11 goals from 29 games. Rooney then went on to feature in fourteen seasons with the Red Devils and netted 183 goals from 393 matches.

Rooney then came back to Everton in 2017 on a free transfer, where he scored ten goals from 31 games. However, in July 2018 he joined DC United and ended his chapter in the Premier League as the second top goalscorer of all time with 208 goals.

#1 Alan Shearer - 260 Goals

260 goals are the number of the goals that make Alan Shearer the top scorer of all time in the Premier League, and the record has been standing for a very long time.

Alan Shearer made his Premier League debut with Blackburn Rovers and was an excellent transfer to the team, as he scored 16 goals from 21 games in his first season. However his form and goal tally kept on increasing as in the next season as he scored 31 goals from 40 games, and Blackburn Rovers won the Premier League title for the first time. He then went on to stay for the next two seasons and scored a total of 112 goals in 138 games from his four seasons with Blackburn Rovers.

A year later he joined his boyhood club Newcastle United at a transfer fee of £18.9 million which was a then world record. In his first season with the Magpies, he scored 25 goals from 31 games which was a good start. However, his goal tally reduced in the coming seasons and he couldn't replicate what he did during his time with Blackburn Rovers.

Shearer then stayed with Newcastle for eight more seasons until he finally retired from football in 2006, as the top scorer of all time in the Premier League.

Edited by Raunak J