When it comes down to it, the game of football is all about putting the ball in the back of the net more times than your opponent. Goalscorers will always be highly sought after, and this article will look at some of the most prolific strikers in Premier League history. These players burst onto the scene, bagging goals at a rapid pace after their debut. However, this list might not stay as it is for long, given that Earling Haaland is scoring goals at an absurd rate that we have never seen before in the Premier League era, already bagging 32 Premier League Goals with 8 games left in his debut season.
Who was the quickest to 100 Premier League goals? The fastest player to reach 100 Premier League goals to date is the same man that holds the record for the most goals ever in the Premier League, Alan Shearer. Shearer took just 124 games to hit the 100-goal tally, doing so soon after the Premier League began, with his 100th goal coming in December of 1995.
Here is a look at Shearer and the rest of the top five:
1. Alan Shearer (124 Games)
Alan Shearer is the most natural goalscorer to have ever played in the Premier League. He played in the first Premier League season in 1992-93 as a new arrival for Blackburn Rovers from Southampton, where he had scored 13 goals in 41 games in the old First Division. Blackburn was a big-money club at the time, and Shearer was surrounded by a talented cast. Even so, his goal-scoring at Blackburn was stunning.
An injury-disrupted first campaign saw him score 16 goals in 21 games before netting 31 in 40 matches the following year. Blackburn added Christ Sutton to their attack for the 1994-95 season, a campaign where Shearer scored an outrageous 34 goals in 42 games as Blackburn Rovers won the Premier League for the only time in their history. During the 1995-96 season, Shearer scored 31 goals in 35 games and passed the 100-goal target in just 124 games.
Sherer would continue to score at will with Newcastle, but he never again hit 30 or more goals in a season. He finished his career with 260 Premier League goals and is the only player in Premier League history to have scored more than 100 goals for two different teams.
2. Harry Kane (141 Games)
It took Harry Kane a while to work his way into the Spurs team. Kane was on their books from the 2010-11 season through the 2013-14 season, where he played 14 Premier League games (including three on loan at Norwich City) and scored just three Premier League goals. His breakout season was the 2014-15 campaign, where a run of matches in the team led to Kane scoring 21 goals in 34 contests.
Kane is a machine. He has never scored less than 17 goals in an entire Premier League season and has scored 20 or more goals five times. He has also developed his all-around play to become a top-level assist player, working insanely well in tandem with Son Heung-min at the top of the Spurs team. His only real blip in form came amid transfer rumors linking him to Manchester City, but if Kane keeps up his scoring pace, then he will challenge Shearer’s all-time goal mark.
3. Sergio Aguero (147 Games)
Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero is the fastest foreign-born player to reach 100 goals. The Argentine was stunningly prolific for the Citizens, needing no time to bed into the unique style of the Premier League and scoring goals from the moment he put on a sky-blue shirt. His 100 goals came in just six games more than Harry Kane, with Aguero hitting the mark on April 19, 2016.
Aguero certainly came to City with pedigree. He has scored 18 goals in 36 games for Independiente in the Argentine Primera Division and then a very impressive 74 goals in 175 games for Atletico Madrid in La Liga. Aguero scored 23 goals in his first Premier League season and never looked back. The five-time Premier League champion will always be remembered in Manchester for his iconic “Aguerooooooooo” moment, where he won the title for City with the very last kick of the 2011-12 season (his debut season), ending their 44-year title drought.
4. Thierry Henry (160 Games)
Thierry Henry was among the best signings in Arsenal and Premier League history when The Gunners bought him in from Juventus. Henry was not seen as a natural goalscorer at the time, he had spent most of his time at Juve out on the wing, but under the guidance of Arsene Wenger, Henry became a prolific striker that was the focal point of Arsenal’s Invincibles year and their continued success in all competitions.
Henry scored some of the most memorable goals in the league’s history. His flick volley against Manchester United in 2000, when he chipped the ball up to himself with his back to goal and, in one motion, spun around and hammered the ball into the top corner, is something that kids on the playground tried to recreate for the next decade. Overall, he scored 175 Premier League goals for Arsenal, doing so with a style and flair that took the English game by storm.
5. Mohamed Salah (162 Games)
Mo Salah netted his 100th Premier League goal in a game for Liverpool against Leeds United on September 12, 2021. That strike made Salah the 30th player to reach the 100 mark, doing it in the fifth fastest time to date.
The most impressive part of Salah’s goal-scoring haul is that he essentially had a 13-game handicap. Salah played for Chelsea as a youth prospect, playing 13 Premier League games for The Blues but not significantly impacting the league. He scored just two times in those 13 games, finding it hard to make his mark in a Chelsea squad loaded with more prominent names on bigger contracts. His work in Serie A convinced Liverpool to bring the Egyptian back and give him another shot, but not even Jurgen Klopp could have expected Salah to become the goal-scoring machine he has from the right-wing spot.
Salah scored 32 goals for Liverpool during the 2017-18 season and repeated as Golden Boot winner the following year. During those seasons, he was in the debate as the third-best player on the planet, behind just Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, due to his ability to score goals whenever Liverpool needed them.
Who is the youngest player to score 100 Premier League Goals?
Michael Owen is currently the youngest player to reach 100 Premier League Goals. Despite him being known for injuries later in his career, his early years saw him play a lot of games. He racked up 100 goals in 185 games at the age of just 23 years and 134 days, beating out his former Liverpool Teammate Robbie Fowler to top spot.
The table below shows the 20 youngest players to reach 100 Premier League Goals. Showing their age in years and days and the amount of games it took them to get there.
| Fastest to 100 Premier League Goals by age with games played | |||
| Rank | Player | Age | PL Games |
| 1 | Michael Owen | 23 years and 134 days | 185 |
| 2 | Robbie Fowler | 23 years and 283 days | 175 |
| 3 | Wayne Rooney | 24 years and 100 days | 245 |
| 4 | Harry Kane | 24 years and 191 days | 141 |
| 5 | Romelu Lukaku | 24 years and 308 days | 216 |
| 6 | Alan Shearer | 25 years and 139 days | 124 |
| 7 | Thierry Henry | 26 years and 177 days | 160 |
| 8 | Raheem Sterling | 27 years and 3 days | 304 |
| 9 | Andy Cole | 27 years and 126 days | 185 |
| 10 | Robbie Keane | 27 years and 171 days | 349 |
| 11 | Sergio Aguero | 27 years and 322 days | 147 |
| 12 | Darren Bent | 27 years and 361 days | 224 |
| 13 | Jermain Defoe | 28 years and 198 days | 290 |
| 14 | Dwight Yorke | 29 years and 23 days | 280 |
| 15 | Robin van Persie | 29 years and 28 days | 197 |
| 16 | Mohammed Salah | 29 years and 90 days | 162 |
| 17 | Sadio Mane | 29 years and 178 days | 237 |
| 18 | Nicolas Anelka | 29 years and 276 days | 266 |
| 19 | Frank Lampard | 30 years and 135 days | 412 |
| 20 | Les Ferdinand | 30 years and 155 days | 178 |
22 year old Erling Haaland currently has in his sights set on smashing all Premier League Goal records. Given the sheer number of opportunities created by his Manchester City team and the rate at which he converts those opportunities he is on course to score 41 goals this Premier League season (obviously a record). If he continues his current rate of scoring it could take him less than 100 games to reach 100 Premier League Goals. If he plays 35 Premier League games a season he would be expected to break the 100 goal barrier towards the end of the 24/25 season. Something which at this point looks certain.
Haaland was born on 21st July 2000, turning 23 this offseason. That would give him only about 100 days next season to reach Owen’s 100 goals at the age of 23 years and 134 days. Certainly not possible even for Haaland. We can’t blame him for playing in his early years in Europe though.