5 players who could break Alan Shearer's Premier League goal record

One of the Premier League’s longest standing records has been Alan Shearer’s record of 260 goals. Over the years nobody has been able to match his consistency and longevity with Wayne Rooney the only other player to break the 200 goal barrier.

However with strikers of the calibre of Sergio Aguero, Harry Kane, Romelu Lukaku and Mo Salah currently plying their trade in the Premier League, Shearer’s record could come under serious threat for the first time in the history of the competition.

In this article we run the rule over the players who look most likely to write their name into the history books.

Sergio Aguero

Aguero has a remarkable scoring record for Manchester City

Manchester City’s greatest ever goal scorer appears to be getting better and better under the management of Pep Guardiola, exemplified by his outstanding performance against Manchester United in the recent derby. His form prompted team mate Bernardo Silva to suggest that he believes Aguero can break Shearer’s record and his statistics are quite staggering.

Since signing for City in 2011 he has scored a remarkable 210 goals in just 307 games. 151 of those goals have been scored in the Premier League leaving him 110 goals from breaking Shearer’s record.

Not including the eight goals that Aguero has scored in 2018-19, he averages 20 league goals a season over the course of his time at the club. If he were to continue scoring at the same rate, he would need to play for another six seasons and maintain that form in order to break the record.

He has recently signed a new contract to keep him in Manchester until 2021 so it looks likely that he will be at the club for another three years. However by this time Aguero will be 33 and you would normally expect a striker’s performances to decline at this age. Aguero undoubtedly has the potential to break the record but age and the continued improvement of Gabriel Jesus might work against him.

Lukaku has been out of form for Manchester United this season

Romelu Lukaku

Still only 25 years old, Lukaku has been playing his football in England since 2011 when Chelsea spent big to sign him from Anderlecht. He never made it at Chelsea but has enjoyed successful periods in front of goal with West Bromwich Albion, Everton and now Manchester United. He has now scored a combined total of 105 Premier League goals for those clubs.

That leaves him 156 goals away from breaking Shearer’s record. Given his relatively tender years that figure should be achievable for the Belgian but the statistics would suggest it is likely to be a struggle.

Lukaku enjoyed his best year during his final season at Everton in 2016-17 when he scored 25 league goals. Excluding the four goals he has scored this season, Lukaku has scored 101 goals over the course of six full Premier League seasons. That’s an average of just under 17 league goals a season. If he continues scoring at that rate then he would need to play for another 10 years to get somewhere near breaking the overall record, which doesn’t seem likely. Add to that the fact he is struggling for form in front of goal for United this year, with just four league goals to his name this season.

Harry Kane

In my opinion, Kane is the one most likely to break Shearer’s record. The only conceivable thing that would stop him would be a move abroad or if he was to suffer a serious injury.

Like Lukaku, Kane is just 25 years old and already has 114 Premier League goals to his name. Following his breakthrough season in 2014-15 Kane has scored at a prolific rate, bagging 105 goals during that time at an average of 26 goals a season.

If he continues at that rate of scoring, Shearer’s record would be within Kane’s reach in the next six or seven years.

Arguably the best out and out centre forward in world football, Kane would certainly command a hefty transfer fee and would be unlikely to move to another club in England but it is surely only a matter of time before Real Madrid make a concerted effort to sign him. Given his desire to win trophies it would be a hard move for Kane to turn down. Otherwise he seems like a near certainty to break the record.

Mo Salah

After failing to shine during his first spell in England with Chelsea, Salah returned to England with Liverpool in 2017 after an impressive spell in Italy.

Big things were expected of the Egyptian winger but I don’t think anybody anticipated the impact that he would go on to have. Salah had an astonishing debut season at Anfield, scoring 32 league goals in just 36 games and after a slow start to this season has hit form adding a further six goals to his overall tally, which also includes two goals during his ill-fated spell at Chelsea.

So with a total of 40 goals to his name he is still some way from breaking the record. If he keeps scoring at his current rate he would certainly be in with a chance but it would be entirely dependent on him staying at Liverpool for a prolonged period of time.

Much like Kane, it is surely only a matter of time before Real Madrid come knocking on the door but if Liverpool can win the Premier League title this season then they have a great chance of keeping him for the foreseeable future.

Gabriel Jesus

A bit of a wildcard choice, Jesus has found himself out of favour at Manchester City this year following the continued excellence of Aguero.

However, it is clear that he is one of the best young strikers in world football and at just 21 years of age he already has 21 Premier League goals to his name and in his only full season in the league he bagged 13 league goals. Not staggering numbers by any means but this is likely to increase significantly as he gets more playing time over the next few years.

He is only going to continue to get better and with the sheer volume of chances that City create it is surely only a matter of time before he finds his goal scoring touch once more.

If he fully realises his true potential there is no reason why he can't score between 20 and 30 league goals a season.