Since the Premier League began in 1992, thousands of players have graced English football’s top flight. But only a handful have written their names into history as the competition’s greatest ever goalscorers. This is the updated Premier League all-time top scorers list for 2026 covering the players with the most goals in Premier League history, what made them great, and who has any chance of chasing down the record.
The headline fact: Alan Shearer still holds the Premier League all-time scoring record with 260 goals, a mark he set across spells at Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United between 1992 and 2006. After more than three decades, nobody has come close.
Premier League All-Time Top Scorers: The Full Top 10
| Rank | Player | Nationality | Goals | Appearances |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alan Shearer | England | 260 | 441 |
| 2 | Harry Kane | England | 213 | 320 |
| 3 | Wayne Rooney | England | 208 | 491 |
| 4 | Mohamed Salah | Egypt | 193 | 338 |
| 5 | Andrew Cole | England | 187 | 414 |
| 6 | Sergio Agüero | Argentina | 184 | 275 |
| 7 | Frank Lampard | England | 177 | 609 |
| 8 | Thierry Henry | France | 175 | 258 |
| 9 | Robbie Fowler | England | 163 | 379 |
| 10 | Jermain Defoe | England | 162 | 496 |
Stats updated through end of the 2025/26 Premier League season.
1. Alan Shearer: 260 Goals
Alan Shearer is the greatest goalscorer in Premier League history and, after more than 30 years, his record of 260 goals has never been seriously threatened. What makes Shearer’s achievement even more remarkable is that he did it across two clubs scoring 112 goals for Blackburn Rovers and 148 for Newcastle United making him the only player in history to score 100 Premier League goals for two different clubs.
Shearer was the complete centre-forward. Powerful in the air, lethal with both feet, clinical in the box, and relentless in his determination. His best Premier League season came in 1994/95, when he scored 34 goals a figure that stood as the joint single-season record until Erling Haaland broke it in 2022/23. He was also the first player in Premier League history to reach 200 career goals, achieving the milestone against Charlton Athletic in April 2002.
Shearer retired in 2006 still at Newcastle, having rejected countless offers from bigger clubs to stay at his boyhood club. His loyalty cost him major trophies, but it earned him the undying love of Tyneside. The 260-goal record is his legacy and it looks untouchable for the foreseeable future.
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2. Harry Kane: 213 Goals
Harry Kane is the second-highest scorer in Premier League history and the most prolific striker England has produced since Shearer himself. All 213 of his Premier League goals were scored for Tottenham Hotspur, making him the club’s all-time leading scorer in the competition by an enormous margin.
Kane reached the 200-goal mark in early 2023, becoming only the third player in Premier League history to achieve that feat. He was also among the fastest to 100 goals, reaching the landmark in 141 appearances slightly behind Shearer’s record of 124. His departure to Bayern Munich in the summer of 2023 ended his Premier League career, but the 213-goal total secured his place permanently in the second spot on the all-time list.
Kane is 47 goals behind Shearer. With his time in Germany showing no signs of ending, his challenge to Shearer’s record is effectively over.
3. Wayne Rooney: 208 Goals
Wayne Rooney is third on the all-time list with 208 Premier League goals, scored across two clubs Everton, where he began his career as a teenager, and Manchester United, where he became one of the most decorated players in the club’s history. For United alone, Rooney scored more Premier League goals than any other player in the club’s history, netting 183 times in the competition for the Red Devils.
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Rooney was a different kind of goalscorer to Shearer and Kane. Less a pure striker than a complete attacking player, he created as much as he scored, dropping deep to influence games in ways that a conventional centre-forward never would. His ability to score screamers, poach tap-ins, and deliver from free kicks made him one of the most complete forwards the Premier League has ever seen. He reached 200 Premier League goals in 2017 and finished his time in England with 208 before a short spell in the United States.
4. Mohamed Salah: 193 Goals
Mohamed Salah is the highest-scoring foreign player in Premier League history and the most prolific active player the competition has produced in years. His 193 Premier League goals, all scored for Liverpool, have been built on a consistency that is almost unheard of at the elite level four Premier League Golden Boot wins, seasons of 30-plus goals, and a relentless ability to deliver regardless of age or circumstance.
Salah became the first African player to reach 150 Premier League goals and subsequently became the highest-scoring African player in the competition’s history. He also holds the record for the most Premier League Golden Boot wins, claiming the award four times. His departure from Liverpool at the end of the 2024/25 season drew to a close one of Anfield’s most celebrated eras, but his 193 goals in the competition remain a monument to his brilliance.
He is currently 15 goals behind Rooney in third place and 67 behind Shearer’s record. Whether he adds to his tally in a future Premier League stint remains to be seen.
5. Andrew Cole 187 Goals
Andrew Cole was one of the most natural goalscorers of the Premier League era. Rapid, sharp in the box, and clinical with both feet, Cole scored 187 Premier League goals across a career that took in Newcastle United, Manchester United, Blackburn Rovers, Fulham, Manchester City, Portsmouth, Sunderland, and Burnley. His 34 goals for Newcastle in 1993/94 remained the single-season Premier League record for decades before Haaland finally surpassed it.
Cole’s partnership with Dwight Yorke at Manchester United during the 1998/99 Treble season remains one of the most feared strike partnerships in Premier League history. He won the Premier League title five times, all with United, cementing his status as one of the most decorated forwards of his generation.
6. Sergio Agüero: 184 Goals
Sergio Agüero is the greatest foreign goalscorer in Premier League history in terms of goals-per-game ratio. His 184 goals came in just 275 appearances a ratio of 0.67 goals per game that no other player in the top 10 can match. Every one of those goals was scored in a sky blue shirt for Manchester City, making him the club’s all-time leading scorer in the competition.
Agüero’s Premier League career will forever be defined by one moment the injury-time winner against Queens Park Rangers on May 13, 2012, that won Manchester City their first league title in 44 years. “Agüerooo!” in Martin Tyler’s commentary became the most iconic piece of Premier League broadcasting ever recorded. Forced to retire in December 2021 due to a heart condition, Agüero was never able to add to his total. He remains sixth on the all-time list and is arguably the most naturally gifted pure striker the competition has ever seen.
7. Frank Lampard: 177 Goals
Frank Lampard is the highest-scoring midfielder in Premier League history and it is not particularly close. His 177 goals came predominantly in a Chelsea shirt, with additional contributions at West Ham United and Manchester City. For a player who was never a striker, reaching 177 top-flight goals is a staggering achievement that speaks to his timing, movement, and clinical finishing from distance.
Lampard won three Premier League titles, all with Chelsea, and was named FWA Footballer of the Year in 2005. His ability to arrive late into the penalty area and finish with both feet made him one of the most dangerous players in the Premier League throughout the 2000s. No midfielder in the history of the competition has come close to matching his goal tally.
8. Thierry Henry 175 Goals
Thierry Henry scored all 175 of his Premier League goals in an Arsenal shirt, making him the club’s all-time leading scorer in the competition. The Frenchman was arguably the most aesthetically breathtaking goalscorer the Premier League has ever produced quick, graceful, technically immaculate, and capable of scoring goals that others could not even conceive of attempting.
Henry was the Premier League’s top scorer four times and was named FWA and PFA Players’ Player of the Year twice each. He was the focal point of Arsène Wenger’s 2003/04 Invincibles side, the only team in Premier League history to go an entire season unbeaten. His 175 goals place him eighth all-time, and many who watched him believe his peak was the most complete striking performance English football has ever witnessed.
9. Robbie Fowler 163 Goals
Robbie Fowler was one of the most natural finishers of his generation, scoring 163 Premier League goals across clubs including Liverpool, Leeds United, Manchester City, and Blackburn Rovers. At his peak in the mid-1990s, Fowler was arguably the best striker in England quick, two-footed, composed in front of goal, and capable of scoring from almost any position.
Injuries disrupted what might otherwise have been an even more remarkable career, but 163 Premier League goals places Fowler firmly among the elite scorers in the competition’s history.
10. Jermain Defoe: 162 Goals
Jermain Defoe’s 162 Premier League goals arrived across a remarkably long career at clubs including West Ham United, Tottenham Hotspur, Portsmouth, Sunderland, Bournemouth, and Rangers (on loan). Defoe was a poacher’s poacher — small, explosive, and extraordinarily accurate inside the penalty area. He is one of very few players to score Premier League goals in four different decades.
Who Could Challenge Shearer’s Record?
The honest answer is: nobody currently active is close enough to mount a serious challenge in the near term.
Erling Haaland is the most talked-about candidate. The Norwegian became the fastest player in Premier League history to reach 100 goals and was the 2025/26 season’s top scorer with 27 goals. However, he is currently still around 148 goals behind Shearer’s record of 260. Even at his prolific best, that gap requires many more years of consistent Premier League football at Manchester City. If Haaland were to average 25 goals per season, he would need approximately six more full seasons just to reach 260 and that assumes no serious injuries, no departure from England, and no decline in form.
Mohamed Salah remains on the list at 193 goals, though his Premier League days now appear to be behind him following his Liverpool exit. No other active player is within 100 goals of Shearer’s record.
Shearer’s 260 goals are, for now, exactly what they have been for over three decades the gold standard of Premier League goalscoring, and the target that every Premier League striker measures themselves against.
Premier League All-Time Top Scorers: Quick Facts
- All-time record holder: Alan Shearer (260 goals)
- Most goals for a single club: Alan Shearer 148 goals for Newcastle United
- Highest goals-per-game ratio (top 10): Sergio Agüero 0.67 per game
- Highest-scoring foreign player: Mohamed Salah (193 goals)
- Highest-scoring midfielder: Frank Lampard (177 goals)
- Highest-scoring African player: Mohamed Salah (193 goals)
- First to 100 goals: Alan Shearer (in 124 appearances)
- First to 200 goals: Alan Shearer (in 303 appearances)
- Most Golden Boots: Mohamed Salah (4)
- 2025/26 season top scorer: Erling Haaland (27 goals, Manchester City)