Top Ten All Time Leading Goalscorers

With Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney equalling Sir Bobby Charlton’s goal return of 249 in the weekend’s FA Cup third round tie against Reading, here’s a list of the top ten goalscorers in a club’s history.

Whilst the England skipper’s achievements in terms of his goal return are to be applauded, he doesn’t even get near the top ten when it comes to all time goals scored going back to the inception of the game – and not just the rebranding to the Premier League in 1992.

The legwork – as compiled by Sky Sports – is particularly interesting when you look at the clubs who earn their place in those positions as the more modern day fan will look twice at some of the clubs, and there will even be fans of those clubs who don’t naturally recognise their highest ever goalscorers’ name.

Some are clearly more recognisable than others though and their names won’t be as much of a surprise.

First place goes to Yeovil Town striker Johnny Haywood with a fantastic return of 548 goals during his time with them back between 1906 and 1928 and Wycombe Wanderers’ Tony Horseman stands out with 416 goals between 1961 and 1978.

The remaining eight in the table all achieved 300+ but nobody else was to clear the 400 mark, with Everton’s Dixie Dean closest at 383 between 1925 and 1937.

In the more recent times, Liverpool’s Welsh legend Ian Rush comes in at sixth place with a return of 346 over his two spells at Anfield and Wolverhampton Wanderers’ former England international Steve Bull closes the top ten with a return of 306 between 1986 and 1999.

Here’s the full top ten.

With the propensity for players to move around more and represent different clubs over the years of their playing career in the modern game, in all honesty it’s highly unlikely that anybody will ever make a dent in that top ten list now in the years to come, as being the nearest sitting on 249 for Wayne Rooney, it’s still a long way to 306 and at 31 years old but often deployed slightly deeper now many will question if he can get close to the 300 mark in the remaining years of his career – and that assumes he remains with United until he hangs up his boots in any event.

Whilst the top ten might not change in the coming years, at least the stats showing 18,498 goals in total from the 92 all time top scorers from 1892 will grow.

For those clubs and players who take positions 11 through to 30 please Click Here.

For those clubs and players who take positions 31 through to 50 please Click Here.

Finally, to complete the set, for those clubs and players who take positions 51 through to 74 please Click Here.

For some clubs and players in the full list they are tied on position with the number of goals scored, and whilst the list is goals scored across all competitions a few players have their goal tally taken from league competition only.

Obviously the table is based on the current make up of the Premier League and Football League so other clubs and their all time top scorer miss out in the 2016/17 version.