Top 5 strikers who played for England from 1990 to 2020

England, the country which gave birth to football and is known to be the home of the game, has surprisingly low returns in the international arena. They have won the World Cup only once, in 1966, when they hosted the event. Along with Scotland, they are the oldest national team in football.

Apart from winning the tournament in 1966, England have had fourth-place finishes in 1990 and 2018. In the European Championships, England have only had third-place finishes in 1968 and 1998.

The national team has been widely criticized in the past for lacking coordination with some people even going as far as to say that the players gave more importance to their clubs than the national team. However, that has changed in recent times and the improvement could be seen in England's stellar showing at the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Today, we bring to you five of the best strikers to have played for England from 1990 to 2020.

1) Wayne Rooney (Everton, Manchester United, D.C. United, Derby County)

Wayne Rooney is England's leading goalscorer having struck 53 times in the 120 appearances he made for his country. He sits only slightly ahead of Sir Bobby Charlton, whose playing career lasted from 1958 to 1970. The Merseyside-born Rooney, made his England debut in 2003 and called time on his international career in 2018. Along with being the leading goalscorer for Manchester United, Rooney leads the charts for England as well. Rooney scored his first goal for England against Macedonia in September 2003 at the tender age of 17.

In all, Rooney scored 14 goals in international friendlies, 16 in World Cup qualifiers but only one in eleven appearances in World Cup finals. He also scored 14 goals in European Championship qualifiers and six in the finals of the same. He was a very influential player and rated to be one of the best players not just in England but across the world. However, his lack of performances in World Cup finals did not endear him to the English faithful.

2) Michael Owen (Liverpool, Real Madrid, Newcastle United, Manchester United, Stoke City)

Michael Owen sits fifth in the list of all-time leading goalscorers for England behind Rooney, Sir Bobby Charlton, Gary Lineker, and Jimmy Greaves. Owen struck 40 times in the 89 appearances he made for England. He scored 12 goals in international friendlies, 9 and 4 in World Cup qualifiers and finals respectively. Owen also scored 13 goals combined in European Championships qualifiers and finals.

Owen became the youngest goalscorer for England in the World Cup finals when he scored against Romania in the 1998 edition of the tournament. He was a very good striker whose movement off the ball worked in his favor. Now, he is a renowned television pundit.

3) Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur)

Tottenham Hotspur star Harry Kane is sixth in the list of all-time leading goalscorers for England with 32 strikes to his name in 45 appearances. Taking over the captaincy from central midfielder Jordan Henderson in May 2018 before the FIFA World Cup, he led his country to a fourth-place finish, the highest England finish have had since 1990.

Kane has 5 goals in international friendlies and eleven in World Cup qualifiers and finals combined. He also has six goals to his name in European Championships qualifiers but sadly has not opened his account in the European Championships finals yet. Kane, who has 136 goals in 198 appearances for Tottenham in the Premier League, is expected to surpass Rooney by the time his career gets over. His finishing skills are second to none in the current generation.

4) Alan Shearer (Southampton, Blackburn Rovers, Newcastle United)

Alan Shearer, who is a legend of the Premier League by being its record goalscorer, also had a decent international career to boot. Standing ninth in the list of all-time leading goalscorers with 30 strikes, Shearer did not quite replicate his performances in the Premier League into the international arena. He made his senior debut in 1992 against France but earned the last of his 63 caps against Romania in 2000 when he was only 29 years old.

He earned the maximum number of his England caps (35) while he was playing at Newcastle United but somehow his tenacity was unseen by the world. Although he scored 8 goals in international friendlies, six and two in World Cup qualifiers and finals respectively along with a combined 13 goals in European Championships qualifiers and finals, he did not quite become an England great as was expected of him.

5) Peter Crouch (Tottenham, QPR, Portsmouth, Aston Villa, Southampton, Liverpool, Stoke City, Burnley)

Peter Crouch, who played for a lot of clubs in his home country, is seventeenth in the list of all-time leading goalscorers for England with 22 strikes to his name. The lanky striker was devastating in the air and caused opposition defenders all sorts of problems. He scored 12 goals in international friendlies, four in World Cup qualifiers and one in World Cup finals.

To go with this, Crouch also scored five goals in European Championships qualifiers. He earned his first call-up to the senior side in 2005 and made his debut against Colombia on the tour to the United States of America. Crouch was famous for his robotic dance celebrations after scoring goals and it was emphasized after the hat trick he netted against Jamaica in a friendly in 2006.