9 Best English Strikers in Football History: Kane, Owen, Rooney and others

England remembers Cliff Bastin and Geoff Hurst, who stood out as unique goalscorers in the formative era of football. Now they have been replaced by Harry Kane and Marcus Rashford. However, the list of talents goes on.

Let’s remember the best English strikers in the history of the Premier League, who made this league the strongest on the planet.

In the history of English football there have been strikers who scored goals with enviable ease. The younger generation of players is now trying to break their past records, and some are already very close to the coveted results. That is why it is important to remember those whose records will have to be conquered in the future.

9th Place. Kevin Keegan

Born in Armthorpe, Keegan supported Newcastle from childhood. He subsequently played for the Magpies, but only after becoming one of the best European footballers of the 70s.

Keegan began his career at Scunthorpe United and was soon spotted by Liverpool, where he moved in 1971. Kevin initially played in midfield, but it soon became clear that he was better suited as a striker.

The club’s then manager, Bill Shankly, moved the player into the attacking line, and it turned out to be the right decision. Keegan helped Liverpool win 3 league titles, 2 UEFA Cups, 1 FA Cup and a European Cup. After winning the European Cup in 1977, Kevin decided to join Hamburg.

Despite a slow start at Hamburg, Kevin helped the team win their first league title in 19 years and won the individual Ballon d’Or award twice. He also made 63 caps for England and scored 21 goals. Keegan was captain in half of these matches.

8th Place. Dixie Dean

Dean is the perfect example of a classic striker number 9. He is the only player on our list to score 60 goals in a single season of English football.

A lifelong Everton fan since the age of 8, Dean made a name for himself playing for Tranmere Rovers, where he scored 27 goals in 27 appearances in his first full season. He was then transferred to Everton, where he hit the ground running and led the team to the league title in the 1927/28 season. He ended up scoring 60 goals in 39 matches (67 in all competitions).

Despite Everton’s relegation a few years later, Dean remained with the Toffees and helped them win the Second Division, which was quickly followed by another First Division title a year later. The FA Cup trophy came a year later.

Everton and English football legend Dixie Dean played 16 matches for England and managed to score 18 goals in nine of them. He scored 379 goals in 438 league appearances for Everton and still has the best goals-per-game ratio in the English top flight (0.87). By the way, they even erected a statue of him near Goodison Park.

7th Place. Harry Kane

Premier League goalscorer and double captain of England and Tottenham. Harry Kane fully deserves to be among the legends, despite never having won a team trophy to date.

Kane is a product of the Spurs youth academy, but his path to success has not been easy. After several loan spells, he eventually broke into the Spurs first team in the 2013/14 season and proved his worth. In the 14/15 season, Kane scored 21 goals in the league, and since then he has not scored less than twenty.

Such performance brought him several individual awards: three Premier League golden boots and a prize for the best scorer of the 2018 World Cup.

6th Place. Michael Owen

Having won the Ballon d’Or at the age of 22, Owen was relegated to the bench and no longer played as brightly. But despite this, his early years as a Liverpool player were so good that he fully deserves a place in our selection.

Michael came through the ranks of Liverpool’s youth academy and broke into the first team in the 1997-98 season. Already at the age of 18, he took the Golden Boot and became the best player in the Premier League – fantastic!

Owen picked up another Golden Boot the following season, but his most impressive spell at Liverpool came in the 2000-01 season. In it, together with the Reds, he won the League Cup, FA Cup and UEFA Cup. That same year he won the prestigious Ballon d’Or award, becoming one of only 4 Englishmen to receive this award.

After several successful years at Liverpool, Owen decided to join Real Madrid in 2004, which marked the beginning of his downfall.

Owen moved to Newcastle and after four seasons joined Liverpool’s arch-rivals Manchester United. Here he finally won the Premier League gold medal, despite playing a minor role in the team.

Michael Owen, who scored 40 goals in 89 caps for England, retired from playing for Stoke City in 2013. Although his career did not go as he had planned, at his best Owen was certainly one of the best English strikers in the history of football.

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5th Place. Sir Bobby Charlton

Another Ballon d’Or winner among our selected strikers was the 1966 World Cup winner, Sir Bobby Charlton. Some may argue about his place in our selection, as Charlton did not play exclusively as a striker. He was usually an attacking midfielder, but from this position he managed to score a lot and consistently.

Interesting fact. Sir Bobby Charlton is one of the few survivors of the Munich air disaster, where most of the Manchester United team tragically died in a plane crash.

The 1960s saw England see perhaps its finest generation of English players and Bobby was certainly a superstar, helping the team win their first World Cup in 1966. That same year he won the prestigious Ballon d’Or trophy.

Charlton was the top scorer for England (249 goals) and Manchester United (49 goals) before being overtaken by Wayne Rooney. Charlton won 3 league titles and an FA Cup with United and was the first English captain to win the European Cup in 1968.

4th Place. Wayne Rooney

Like Bobby Charlton, Wayne Rooney is another Manchester United legend of the modern era. One of the greatest English strikers in the history of football, scoring goals in the Premier League before his 17th birthday. Early exploits at Everton convinced United to sign him. Rooney played for the Red Devils for 13 seasons and became the top scorer in the club’s history.

Typically, Rooney was used as a support forward, who played in the classic number 9. He was capable of both scoring and assisting. Known for his powerful long-range shots, Rooney was tireless on the pitch and never gave up, even if he was having a bad day.

At club level, Wayne Rooney has won numerous trophies. He scored 253 goals in 559 games for United and became the second highest striker in Premier League history with 208 goals after Alan Shearer.

Wayne Rooney is England’s second highest scorer with 53 goals in his 120 appearances. In March 2023, he was overtaken by Harry Kane.

3rd Place. Gary Lineker

Iconic broadcaster Gary Lineker is next on our list of the greatest English strikers. Lineker is England’s fourth-highest scorer behind Bobby Charlton, Wayne Rooney and Harry Kane, and a World Cup Golden Boot winner.

Lineker’s career began at Leicester, where he spent several years between the English first and second divisions. Lineker seemed to score goals in the first division as easily as he did in the second. This guaranteed him a move to Everton, one of the best English teams of the era. Despite a superb season for the Toffees, in which he scored 38 goals in all competitions, the club did not win anything that year.

This was followed by the 1986 World Cup, where Lineker managed to score 6 goals in the tournament and win the Golden Boot. For the first time in history, this award was received by an Englishman.

After moving to Barcelona, ​​Lineker won the Copa del Rey and the European Cup Winners’ Cup. Following Johan Cruyff’s arrival as head coach, Lineker was primarily used outside his ‘home’ position, leading him to leave Catalonia for Tottenham. There he won another Golden Boot and helped Spurs win the FA Cup in 1991.

Gary Lineker wore the England shirt 80 times and scored 48 goals.

2nd Place. Jimmy Greaves

And this is the legend of English football of the 1960s. Jimmy Greaves was a non-stop goal scoring machine. He built his impressive records while playing for Tottenham and Chelsea for most of his career.

The Chelsea youth academy product broke into the first team by the age of 17 and made a huge impression after scoring 22 goals in his debut season. During his 4 seasons at Chelsea, Greaves always scored over 30 goals a season, with his last year being the best of his career. Finally, he scored 41 goals in 40 matches.

After turning down an offer to Milan, Greaves returned to London in 1961, but this time he went to Tottenham, where he became a Spurs legend. Thanks to Greaves’ scoring prowess, Tottenham managed to win 2 FA Cups and the European Cup Winners’ Cup.

Jimmy Greaves played a big role in the 1962 and 1966 World Cups, scoring over 3 goals in each edition, the latter of which he won. After this, his name forever entered the history of English football.

1st Place. Alan Shearer

The Newcastle native started out at Southampton before winning Premier League gold with Blackburn. Manchester United fought for Alan, but the footballer moved to Rovers for a then-record fee of £15 million. Shearer got his money’s worth, scoring 34 goals in a season – a Premier League record.

Another 30+ goal season followed before Shearer agreed to join his boyhood club in 1996 – he stayed at Newcastle for ten years.

Alan Shearer won the Premier League Golden Boot 3 times and the European Golden Boot in 1996. That same year, he came third in voting for the Ballon d’Or and the FIFA Player of the Year award.

Shearer played 63 times for England and scored 30 goals. With 260 goals in 441 Premier League games, he is the competition’s top scorer.