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English clubs have enjoyed a resurgence in recent Champions League editions. After Liverpool's win over Tottenham Hotspur in the 2019 final, Chelsea edged past Manchester City in another all-English affair in 2021.
It marks a shift in power after Spanish clubs won six of ten finals between 2010 and 2020. Before that, in the 2000s, Premier League teams were extremely competitive in Europe.
Liverpool and Manchester United won the Champions League within a few years of each other. Meanwhile, Chelsea and Arsenal made appearances in the final and semi-finals of the prestigious tournament.
How have English players fared in the Champions League?
Despite putting up strong showings in recent UCL editions, English teams have relied on their overseas stars to deliver the goods. The likes of Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea do not usually field too many English talents up front these days.
Nonetheless, quite a few members of England's 'golden generation' of the 2000s grabbed the tournament by the scruff of its neck and delivered on the biggest stage. On that note, here's a look at the top five English goalscorers in Champions League history:
#5 Steven Gerrard (21 goals in 73 appearances)
Liverpool's legendary captain Steven Gerrard led the Reds to a famous Champions League triumph in 2005.
It came as a relief to the English giants, who regularly did well in Europe under the midfielder's leadership, but seemed to unravel at the business end of the tournament.
A one-club man, Gerrard played 710 games for the Reds, scoring 186 goals and providing 150 assists. His long-range passing and driving runs from midfield helped him score 21 times and assist 14 goals in Europe's club premier competition.
Gerrard played in nine different editions of the Champions League, with his best return of seven goals from eight games coming in 2008-09. He also made 114 appearances for England, captaining the national team regularly.
#4 Frank Lampard (23 goals in 105 appearances)
Arguably the greatest goalscoring midfielder of all time, Frank Lampard is Chelsea's record scorer with 211 goals and 150 assists in 648 games. The Englishman was a vital cog in the Blues' midfield for over a decade, playing in 11 different editions of the Champions League.
He was part of the squad that lost the 2008 final to Manchester United before finally winning the elusive trophy in 2012 against Bayern Munich.
Lampard racked up goals with quiet consistency, and never scored more than four goals in a single edition of the tournament. He also provided 29 assists to go with his 21 UCL goals, though.
Lampard was prolific for his country as well, scoring 29 goals in 106 appearances for England.
#3 Paul Scholes (24 goals in 124 appearances)
Another legendary English midfielder, Manchester United's Paul Scholes often reserved his best displays on Champions League nights. Unlike Gerrard and Lampard, Scholes wasn't known for his scoring, and was relatively underutilised by the English national team as well (66 national caps).
A one-club man, the midfielder scored 152 goals and assisted 74 times in 713 appearances for the Red Devils. He was part of the Manchester United squad that beat Bayern Munich in dramatic fashion to win the Champions League in 1999.
Scholes was also the engine of the team that reached three finals in four years, beating Chelsea (2008) and losing to Barcelona twice (2009, 2011).
Scholes scored 24 goals in 17 Champions League editions. His long-range stunner to knock Lionel Messi's Barcelona out of the semi-finals in 2008 is one of the most famous goals in the tournament's recent history.
#2 Raheem Sterling (24 goals in 68 appearances)
The only player on our list who has not won the tournament so far, Raheem Sterling still has a chance to lift the trophy. Being the only active player on this list as well, it is only a matter of time before he adds to his tally of 24 UCL goals.
The 27-year-old Manchester City winger recently netted in the Citizens' 5-0 demolition of Sporting Lisbon in the first leg of their Round of 16 tie. Sterling now has three goals and two assists in this year's edition. He is looking to improve on his current best tally of six goals and five assists that came in 2019-20.
After a lacklustre 2020-21 campaign, which included a close defeat to Chelsea in the Champions League final, Sterling has looked much better this season. He is also coming off an excellent Euro 2020 campaign last year, and has 18 goals in 72 games for England.
#1 Wayne Rooney (30 goals in 85 appearances)
Manchester United and England's record scorer, Wayne Rooney topping this list does not come as a surprise. With 253 goals for the Red Devils and 53 strikes for the Three Lions, Rooney is one of the greatest strikes of all time.
He played in 11 different Champions League editions, scoring 30 goals and providing 21 assists. The Englishman was part of Manchester United's fearsome attack, along with Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez, who won the tournament in 2008.
Despite operating as a striker, Rooney was often shuffled around to accommodate the likes of Carlos Tevez, Ronaldo, Dimitar Berbatov, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Javier Hernandez.
As a result, he never scored more than five goals in a single Champions League season. The 2013-14 season was his most prolific UCL year in terms of goal contributions as Rooney scored twice and assisted eight times in nine games.
