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The Premier League is the richest league in the world and arguably the most competitive one as well. That perhaps explains why some of the best players to have graced the game have featured in the competition over the years.
In its near three decades of existence, the Premier League has seen several prolific goalscorers. Alan Shearer, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Thierry Henry, Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo, and more recently Jamie Vardy, Sergio Aguero and Harry Kane, to name a few, have all graced the competition.
On that note, let's have a look at the five most prolific goalscorers in the history of the Premier League.
#5 Frank Lampard - 177
Frank Lampard is one of the best midfielders to have played in the Premier League.
During an illustrious two-decade career in the competition, Lampard made his name as a world-class midfielder while playing for Chelsea. It's no surprise, then, that the former Chelsea manager is the club's all-time top scorer in all competitions (211 goals).
Lampard, who also played for West Ham United and Manchester City, scored 147 of his 177 Premier League goals for Chelsea - the most by any player for the club. He also dished out a record 90 assists.
Quite impressively, the three-time Premier League winner tallied ten consecutive seasons where he scored at least ten goals. The 43-year-old's best season in the Premier League was in 2009-10, when he scored 22 goals and registered 16 assists.
#4 Sergio Aguero - 184
Sergio Aguero is the most prolific non-English goalscorer in Premier League history.
In the last match of his illustrious 11-season-long stint with Manchester City, Aguero scored a brace to break Wayne Rooney's record for most goals for a Premier League club (183).
The five-time Premier League winner will forever be adored by the City faithful for his dramatic injury-time winner on the last day of the 2011-12 season to seal the club's first English top-flight title in more than four decades. The Argentinian tallied an impressive five consecutive seasons of at least 20 Premier League goals.
The 33-year-old, who has scored the most penalties (27) in Premier League history, is one of five players to have scored five goals in a Premier League game. He also holds the record for most hat-tricks (12) in the competition.
Aguero's best campaign in the Premier League was in 2014-15, when he scored 26 goals and registered eight assists.
#3 Andrew Cole - 187
Andrew Cole is one of the most decorated strikers in Premier League history. During a successful 16-season stint in the competition, Cole turned up for as many as seven different clubs.
However, his most prolific spell in the Premier League came with record champions Manchester United, for whom he scored 93 goals in 195 appearances.
The five-time Premier League winner (all with Man Utd) is one of only five players to have scored five goals in a game in the competition, doing so against Ipswich Town in 1995.
Cole's best season in the Premier League was in 1993-94, when he scored 34 games for Newcastle United. In his Premier League career spanning over 400 games, Cole also tallied 52 assists.
#2 Wayne Rooney - 208
Wayne Rooney is one of only two players to have scored over 200 goals in the Premier League.
The Manchester United legend scored most of his goals - 183 - for the Old Trafford club. It stood as a record for the most Premier League goals for a single club before Aguero overtook him on the last day of the 2020-21 season.
In almost 500 games in the competition, the diminutive forward also tallied an impressive 103 assists. He is the only player in Premier League history to register 200 goals and 100 assists.
The five-time Premier League winner enjoyed his most prolific season in the competition in 2010-11, when he scored 27 goals and registered seven assists.
#1 Alan Shearer - 260
Alan Shearer is arguably the greatest striker to have graced the Premier League. His tally of 260 goals in the competition is more than 50 clear of the next most prolific scorer (Rooney).
The 50-year-old is the only player in Premier League history to register three consecutive seasons of 30+ goals. One of five players to have scored five goals in a Premier League game, Shearer won only one title, with Blackburn in 1994-95. That was also his best campaign in the Premier League as he scored 34 goals and registered 13 assists.
Shearer's record of most hat-tricks (11) in the Premier League was only recently broken by Sergio Aguero. The three-time Premier League top-scorer was also a prolific scorer for his country, scoring 30 goals.
