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The Premier League has always featured some of the best strikers on the planet. The English top flight is known for being highly entertaining and elite marksmen have always had a huge role to play in making it as exciting as it is.
The Premier League has also had plenty of world-class managers and over the years, their philosophies, tactics and strategies have helped shape a wide variety of strikers. In addition to the burly and physically imposing classic number nines, we've also seen a fair share of diminutive poachers and false nines, to name a few.
Even today, some of the finest goalscorers on the planet are currently plying their trade in the Premier League. Without further ado, let's take a look at five of the best strikers in Premier League history.
#5 Ruud van Nistelrooy
Ruud van Nistelrooy is a player who enjoyed some of the best seasons of his career after suffering an ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament) injury. It did delay his arrival at Manchester United from PSV but the Red Devils knew that they were getting a seasoned goalscorer when he did eventually touch down in 2001.
He is widely considered to be one of the best strikers of all time with his incredible movement, strength and reflexes making him a well-rounded marksman. The Dutchman also possessed immaculate ball control and a great burst of pace which made him an elusive and effective striker in the Premier League.
Nistelrooy scored 95 goals and provided nine assists in 149 Premier League appearances for Manchester United. Unfortunately, he won only one league title during his time at Old Trafford as he was at the club during the only lean patch Sir Alex Ferguson had to navigate in the Premier League era.
In 218 appearances across all competitions for the Red Devils during his five-year stint at the club, he scored a whopping 150 goals and provided 24 assists.
#4 Wayne Rooney
Wayne Rooney had the ability and the longevity to top this list. But as an individual who always put the team before himself, Rooney was happy to let the other superstars around him bask in the limelight. An incredible goalscorer and a scorer of incredible goals, Rooney spent very few seasons playing as an out-and-out striker.
But when he did, he looked as imperious as anyone ever has in the Premier League. Breaking onto the scene as a 16-year-old at Everton, Rooney turned heads with his street-smarts, technique, belligerence and hunger for goals.
Sir Alex Ferguson immediately roped him in at Manchester United and Rooney would go on to score 208 goals and provide 103 assists in the Premier League. The Englishman won five league titles with the Red Devils and was named the 'PFA Players' Player of the Year' in 2010.
He is also Manchester United's all-time leading goalscorer, having netted 253 times in 559 appearances across all competitions.
#3 Sergio Aguero
Sergio Aguero is one of those players who have helped change the perception of how a striker should be in the Premier League. The diminutive Argentinian forward was one of the most technically gifted players to grace the English top flight.
It was nearly impossible to shake him off the ball as he used his incredible agility and strength to retain possession in tight spaces. He was one of Manchester City's most prized assets for a decade as they emerged as a footballing powerhouse.
Aguero's late strike against Queens Park Rangers in the 2011-12 season, which sealed the Premier League title for City, has attained legendary status. He scored 184 goals and provided 47 assists in 275 Premier League appearances for Manchester City.
Aguero won five Premier League titles with City before leaving to join Barcelona in the summer of 2021. Unfortunately, he had to retire from football a few months later after being diagnosed with cardiac arrhythmia and being advised by his doctors that it was time to hang up his boots.
#2 Alan Shearer
Alan Shearer is the all-time leading goalscorer in the Premier League. The legendary English striker has won three Golden Boots in his Premier League career. His goalscoring exploits propelled Blackburn Rovers to the league title in the 1994-95 season.
Shearer was so good that in 1996, Blackburn Rovers owner Jack Walker offered him the player-manager position at the age of 25 just to keep him at the club. But Shearer's focus was entirely on putting the ball in the back of the net on a regular basis and he chose to join Newcastle United instead.
In his first season at Tyneside, Shearer finished as the top scorer for a third consecutive campaign. He ended up scoring 148 league goals for the Magpies by the time he retired in 2006. Shearer had also netted 112 times for Rovers in the league.
He was a goalscoring machine in every sense of the term and will forever be regarded as one of the all-time Premier League greats.
#1 Thierry Henry
Thierry Henry pulled off extraordinary feats in the Premier League with an air of nonchalance that only comes from being extremely confident in one's craft. The French striker was the face of Arsene Wenger's revolution at Arsenal and he was as graceful and effective a striker as any in the history of the game.
Despite not having scored as many goals as Shearer, Henry tops this list because his goal-per-game ratio of 0.68 is higher compared to the former's 0.59. Henry scored 175 goals in 258 Premier League appearances in addition to providing 74 assists.
He won the 'PFA Players' Player of the Year' twice and finished as the runner-up for the Ballon d'Or in 2003. Henry has won the Premier League Golden Boot a record four times. He also won two Premier League titles with Arsenal.
Henry was also part of the 'Arsenal Invincibles' side that went an entire season in the Premier League without conceding a defeat.
