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Legendary strikers in Premier League history have been ranked from ‘GOAT’ to ‘Not A Footballer’

Home> Football

Updated 14:21 3 Dec 2023 GMTPublished 17:04 30 Dec 2022 GMT

Legendary strikers in Premier League history have been ranked from ‘GOAT’ to ‘Not A Footballer’

Does your favourite make it onto the list?

Alex Reid

Alex Reid

Featured Image Credit: PA Images/TierMaker

Topics: Premier League, Football, Harry Kane, Sergio Aguero, Thierry Henry, Alan Shearer, Emmanuel Adebayor

Alex Reid
Alex Reid

Alex Reid is a writer at SPORTbible who’s previously strung words together for FourFourTwo, Boxing News, The Guardian and, yes, Cruise International (it’s about big ships, not Tom). Interests range from football and boxing to real sports like WWE and darts. He is not a cage fighter.

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Legendary strikers that have graced the Premier League stage have been ranked by SPORTbible, from the greatest ever to 'Overrated' and even 'Not A Footballer'.

Aguero boasts the league's best goal-per-minute ratio, while Alan Shearer has the most Premier League goals (260). But neither tops SPORTbible's TierMaker ranking.

The 'GOAT' alone at the top is Thierry Henry, the Arsenal No 14 who was fast, a goalscorer, an assist machine, a magician: basically, every type of striker rolled into one. Shearer and Sergio Aguero sit proudly in the 'Legend' category, however, alongside Didier Drogba and Wayne Rooney.

On the other end of the scale, five players are labelled 'Overrated' because - despite their hoard of Premier League goals - they could have been even greater if they had been dedicated to their craft.

Robbie Fowler is a Liverpool legend, but had his best goal return at age 21 and never fulfilled his huge potential. Emmanuel Adebayor was frustrated despite 97 Premier League goals, Carlos Tevez went on strike for a season, while Dwight Yorke also let his off-field activities cut short his peak years.

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'Underrated' contains big-name strikers whose exploits are arguably still undervalued. Such as Romelu Lukaku who scored 121 Premier League goals but somehow went to Serie A as a "flop" after poor spells with Manchester United and Chelsea.

Then there's the always underrated Olivier Giroud, Nicolas Anelka who moved too much to ever become a great at one club, plus Dion Dublin who surprisingly boasts more Premier League goals than Drogba (winning the all-important DD golden boot battle).

Image
TierMaker

Harry Kane is among the 'Elite' but could move to 'Legendary' if he returns to English football. But - as this focuses more on out-and-out strikers - we've not included sublime No 10s like Dennis Bergkamp, Gianfranco Zola or Matt Le Tissier.

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It's cheeky but only one player deserves the 'Not A Footballer' tag: a legendary Premier League player only in that his story will never, ever be forgotten.

Ali Dia somehow persuaded Southampton that he was related to George Weah and was an elite footballer (he was neither) in 1996. He was substituted on in a game, then substituted off by Saints boss Graeme Souness when it became clear he - genuinely - wasn't a football player.

Iconic. The rest of the Premier League legendary frontmen are in their category below.

GOAT: Thierry Henry

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Image
Alamy

Legend: Alan Shearer, Didier Drogba, Wayne Rooney, Eric Cantona, Sergio Aguero, Ian Wright, Luis Suarez

Elite: Andy Cole, Jamie Vardy, Harry Kane, Michael Owen, Les Ferdinand, Robin van Persie, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Teddy Sheringham, Fernando Torres

Underrated: Olivier Giroud, Romelu Lukaku, Diego Costa, Dion Dublin, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Nicolas Anelka, Jermain Defoe, Robbie Keane

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Overrated: Dwight Yorke, Robbie Fowler, Emmanuel Adebayor, Mark Viduka, Carlos Tevez

Solid: Peter Crouch, Kevin Phillips, Emile Heskey, Yakubu, Chris Sutton, Darren Bent

Not A Footballer: Ali Dia

There is a feeling that City's Erling Haaland will eventually go right to the very top of the rankings if he stays in the Premier League for a long period of time.

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Do you agree with the rankings? Let us know in the comments.

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