When it comes to debating the Premier League's greatest goalscorers, Erling Haaland is rightly in the conversation. But is he the best EVER? Football writer Alex Keble picks the players he is up against, and we want you to choose who you think is the best goalscorer in history.
"I think we’re watching the greatest goalscorer to ever play in English football."
Those were big words from Jamie Carragher on Sky Sports last weekend, but Erling Haaland’s form this season certainly opens the debate.
So far in 2025/26, the Manchester City striker has scored nine goals in seven matches in the Premier League, and 18 in 11 across all competitions for club and country. This includes five goals in Norway's last match, a remarkable 11-1 win over Moldova in September's international break.
Watch all of Haaland's nine Premier League goals this season
Haaland's numbers are extraordinary, closer to those of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi at their peaks in Spanish football than to any striker in the English game.
Haaland burst onto the scene and hasn’t slowed down since
Ever since Haaland first emerged at Molde, his first club in Norway, the world knew something special was happening.
Aged 17, he scored 12 goals in 25 games for Molde before Red Bull Salzburg signed him, but within just six months of senior football, Haaland had already outgrown Austria, netting 16 goals in 14 matches.
Haaland seemed completely unfazed by his next move, to Borussia Dortmund, scoring 49 goals in 52 Bundesliga matches across two seasons at the club.
By that point, he was already seen as one of the best strikers in the world and was seemingly coveted by every major club.
Man City won the race to sign Haaland and he repaid them instantly.
Haaland’s minutes-per-goal figures suggest he will become all-time leader
By his own high standards, Haaland had an off season in 2024/25, but nevertheless his statistics over three-and-a-bit years in Manchester are off the charts.
He broke the single-season goalscoring record in year one, scoring 36 Premier League goals, and followed that up with 27 and 22 in the next two seasons.
Haaland is six goals short of hitting his first century in the Premier League - if he does it within his next 20 appearances, he will break Alan Shearer’s record as the fastest player to reach that landmark.
Unsurprisingly, Haaland’s minutes-per goal rate is the best the Premier League has ever seen, at 92.2 minutes, and by a considerable distance.
Best minutes per goal in PL history
| Player | Total |
| Erling Haaland (MCI) | 92.2 |
|---|---|
| Sergio Aguero (MCI) | 108.0 |
| Thierry Henry (ARS) | 121.8 |
| Harry Kane (TOT) | 126.5 |
| Ruud Van Nistelrooy (MUN) | 128.2 |
That means that, with enough time, Haaland should overtake Shearer's record total of 260 Premier League goals.
Using that average of 92.2 minutes per goal, and on the basis that Haaland continues to average 2,686 minutes of Premier League football per season (as he has done over the last three years), he needs another 5.7 seasons to move above Shearer in the all-time list.
Haaland’s current contract expires in 2034, meaning he will become the outright leader with over three seasons to spare.
In other words, he might surpass Shearer’s record. Or he might just obliterate it.
All-time top Premier League goalscorers
| Player | Goals |
| Alan Shearer | 260 |
|---|---|
| Harry Kane | 213 |
| Wayne Rooney | 208 |
| Mohamed Salah | 188 |
| Andrew Cole | 187 |
Haaland is perhaps the best poacher
To answer whether Haaland is the best goalscorer we’ve ever seen, we might not need to go much deeper than the raw numbers – and the raw qualities that make a penalty-box poacher.
Haaland’s strike rate is the best ever, and in time, he will become the Premier League’s all-time leading goalscorer. Is there really any more to it than that?
In his pomp, Michael Owen was as sharp in the box as Haaland, while Andrew Cole — the fifth-highest Premier League scorer of all time — used his explosive speed and movement to fashion chances.
Ruud van Nistelrooy was in that mould, too. He loved to score poacher’s goals, always popping up in the right place to finish off a move, bagging 95 goals in 152 matches for Manchester United, the fifth-fastest rate in the competition’s history (128.2 minutes per goal).
Jamie Vardy had the blistering speed and fierceness in front of goal we associate with Haaland. His run of scoring in 11 consecutive matches in 2015 – breaking Van Nistelrooy’s record of 10, set in 2003 – shows why he should be in the conversation.
Sergio Aguero deserves a mention here too, having scored 20+ Premier League goals in five consecutive seasons. The minimal back lift and powerful shot defined Aguero’s style, as did an ability to wriggle through defenders to find half a yard.
Making runs on the shoulder of the last defender, sniffing out half-chances, and scoring in congested penalty areas: Owen, Vardy, Aguero, Cole and Van Nistelrooy are the true poachers who come close to Haaland.
A few legends have more to their all-round game
Where Haaland compares less favourably is in the all-round game, which has relevance when it comes to judging the best ever goalscorer because not all goals are equal.
Thierry Henry, Didier Drogba, Cristiano Ronaldo, Son-Heung-min, Harry Kane, Frank Lampard and Mohamed Salah: these are our leaders in creativity and footballing ability outside the box, which often translated into creating goals out of nothing.
Most Premier League goals from outside the box
| Player | Goals |
| Frank Lampard | 41 |
|---|---|
| Alan Shearer | 33 |
| Wayne Rooney | 29 |
| Thierry Henry | 29 |
| Harry Kane | 25 |
Arguably these goals - self-created, breaking open a tight game – are more valuable than those of a poacher. Tellingly Haaland has only scored six goals from outside the box.
Henry was sublime in all aspects. There are no other Premier League goalscorers who have the same level of highlights reel, who have so many goals that instantly come to mind when you think of him.
Ronaldo also did so much on his own, often scoring from distance, dove-tailing with another great in Wayne Rooney, who played everywhere on the pitch like a school child on the field at break time.
Rooney’s assist numbers are illuminating here, and far higher than Haaland’s 17.
Premier League forwards with most assists
| Player | Total |
| Wayne Rooney | 103 |
|---|---|
| Frank Lampard | 102 |
| Mohamed Salah | 89 |
| Thierry Henry | 74 |
| Andrew Cole | 73 |
Drogba was brilliant in the air and a target man with an astonishing right foot, while Lampard always seemed to know when to crash into the box to score from nowhere.
Robin van Persie was electric for Arsenal and, although remembered more as a pure goalscorer at Man Utd, was a scorer of dazzling goals from outside the box.
Salah, of course, so often dances through from the right to set himself up. The Liverpool forward also ranks second for goals against other "Big Six" clubs, suggesting he is a big-game player.
Haaland, incidentally, has only scored 22 such goals.
Most goals against "Big Six" clubs
| Player | Goals |
| Alan Shearer | 56 |
|---|---|
| Mohamed Salah | 50 |
| Jamie Vardy | 45 |
| Wayne Rooney | 45 |
| Sergio Aguero | 44 |
All of these players, in their own way, conjured goals from nothing. Does that make them “better” goalscorers than Haaland?
Does playing outside the elite make you a better or worse goalscorer than the trophy hoarders?
There are two players who fit into both of those categories – poachers and creators – who managed to score huge amounts of goals despite rarely playing for title challengers.
Shearer and Kane are unique in that regard. The all-time leader won the Premier League with Blackburn Rovers in 1995 and challenged for a couple of years at Newcastle United, but mostly scored from everywhere and anywhere despite the obvious disadvantage of not so regularly being in the very best teams.
Watch Shearer pick his ultimate Premier League goal
Who knows how many Shearer would have scored had he moved to Man Utd, as he had the chance to do when he instead chose boyhood club Newcastle.
Kane, too, wasn’t in the same position as he is now at Bayern Munich, where this season he has scored 18 goals in 10 games in all competitions.
Had Kane been at Pep Guardiola’s Man City for most of his 20s, or had Shearer enjoyed something similar in his day, then both players might be miles above Haaland for goals per game.
Watch Kane's top 10 Premier League goals
However, some might say that a truly world-beating goalscorer should be judged on the impact their goals had on winning trophies.
Shearer won one Premier League title and Kane none, whereas Haaland has lifted the Premier League trophy twice in three years.
Top scorers with most Premier League titles
| Player | Titles |
| Wayne Rooney | 5 |
|---|---|
| Sergio Aguero | 5 |
| Andrew Cole | 5 |
| Didier Drogba | 4 |
| Frank Lampard | 3 |
Four players stand out - can Haaland become as big a legend?
There are four legendary Premier League goalscorers who tick pretty much all the boxes: Shearer, Rooney, Kane, and Henry.
Haaland has fewer goals than all of them, but with time that will change. His recent acceleration, perhaps owing to Guardiola’s shift to a more fast and direct style of football at Man City, suggests we won’t have to wait long.
The Norwegian is on course to hit 48 Premier League goals in 2025/26. That would surely settle the argument, and although some regression is likely, his manager certainly believes this could be a record-breaking year.
"He is in the best moment," Guardiola said after the Brentford game. "For the treble we won, he scored 50 million goals, but he's part of the club now, he's settled. He feels like 'it's mine' now.'"