4 Players who could have beaten Alan Shearer's all-time Premier League scoring record 

#2 Wayne Rooney

Had Rooney consistently played as a centre-forward, would the list be different?

Former England and Manchester United legend, Wayne Rooney shot to prominence as a teenage sensation for his boyhood club Everton at the tender age of 16. After a successful Euro 2004 campaign, Sir Alex Ferguson snapped up the talented youngster for a record transfer fee of £ 25.6 million.

He donned the red and white of Manchester United for next 13 seasons, scoring a total of 253 goals and becoming the all-time leading scorer for the red devils. Out of the 253 strikes, 183 of them came in the Premier League. By the time he left English football for America, the man from Merseyside had scored 208 goals in the league including his Everton strikes.

But unlike Shearer, who played as a classic centre-forward, Rooney was deployed in a more conservative role of the second striker or on the wings in order to accommodate more illustrious players like Ronaldo and Tevez. He even played as a central midfielder in the latter part of his career.

A truly selfless team player, Rooney also racked up 103 premier league assists, third highest in the league only behind Ryan Giggs and Cesc Fàbregas. Consistent tinkering with his position as well as loss of form in his last couple of seasons at club compromised his chances of overtaking Shearer in the EPL goals tally.