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 clubs and players in positions 11 to 30 in the overall table.
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 – but he does feature in this portion of the overall table.
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.
Cheltenham Town earn 11th place with Dave Lewis’ return of 290 goals between 1970 and 1983 and with Morecambe’s Keith Borrowdale taking 12th with return of 289 across his two spells at the club, having to go 14th place for Tony Brown of West Bromwich Albion fame before getting to a club currently in the top two divisions of English football probably tells its own story.
With 290 from Lewis, the 11 to 30 portion ends with Preston North End’s Tom Finney who scored 210 between 1946 and 1960 and plenty of other familiar names and clubs do feature, but again it’s well represented by clubs who find themselves lower in the pyramid in more recent times.
Here’s the full list – 11 to 30.
No
|
Club
|
Player
|
Goals
|
Years
|
11
|
Cheltenham Town
|
Dave Lewis
|
290
|
1970-83
|
12
|
Morecambe
|
Keith Borrowdale
|
289
|
1958-68, 1978-79
|
13
|
Bolton Wanderers
|
Nat Lofthouse
|
285
|
1946-60
|
14
|
West Bromwich Albion
|
Tony Brown
|
279
|
1961-81
|
15
|
Luton Town
|
Gordon Turner
|
276
|
1950-63
|
16
|
Leicester City
|
Arthur Chandler
|
273
|
1923-35
|
17
|
Birmingham City
|
Joe Bradford
|
267
|
1920-35
|
18
|
Tottenham Hotspur
|
Jimmy Greaves
|
266
|
1961-70
|
19
|
Bristol Rovers
|
Geoff Bradford
|
261
|
1949-63
|
20
|
Sheffield United
|
Harry Johnson
|
252
|
1916-31
|
–
|
Blackpool
|
Jimmy Hampson
|
252
|
1927-38
|
21
|
Manchester United
|
Wayne Rooney
|
249
|
2004-present
|
–
|
Manchester United
|
Bobby Charlton
|
249
|
1953-73
|
22
|
Aston Villa
|
Billy Walker
|
244
|
1920-35
|
23
|
Leeds United
|
Peter Lorimer
|
238
|
1962-79, 1983-85
|
24
|
Swindon Town
|
Harry Morris
|
229
|
1926-33
|
25
|
Sunderland
|
Bobby Gurney
|
228
|
1925-46
|
–
|
Southampton
|
Mick Channon
|
228
|
1965-77, 1979-82
|
–
|
Ipswich Town
|
Ray Crawford
|
228
|
1958-63, 1966-69
|
–
|
Arsenal
|
Thierry Henry
|
228
|
1999-2007, 2012
|
26
|
Hull City
|
Chris Chilton
|
222
|
1960-71
|
27
|
Stevenage
|
Martin Gittings
|
217
|
1980-95
|
–
|
Nottingham Forest
|
Grenville Morris
|
217
|
1898-1912
|
28
|
Sheffield Wednesday
|
Andrew Wilson
|
216
|
1900-20
|
29
|
Portsmouth
|
Peter Harris
|
211
|
1946-60
|
–
|
Chelsea
|
Frank Lampard
|
211
|
2001-14
|
30
|
Preston North End
|
Tom Finney
|
210
|
1946-50
|
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 the top 30 list now in the years to come, as being the nearest to the top ten 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 30 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 1 through to 10 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.