In short
Michael Owen chose and ranked the 10 best forwards in the history of the Premier League.
Owen put Thierry Henry, Harry Kane, and Alan Shearer in the group of forwards.
Owen did not pick himself as one of the best players in the Premier League.
Many people thought Michael Owen’s career would end like a fairy tale, but it didn’t. There’s no doubt that he was great for most of his time as a professional football player. He was different from anyone else in football when he first came on the scene in the late 1990s, and it looked like he would become one of the Premier League’s all-time greats. Even though he’s been hurt a lot, there’s no question that he’s one of the best strikers the English Premier League has ever seen.
As a former centre forward who scored a lot of goals, there isn’t a better person to judge people whose main job is (or was) scoring goals. AceOdds asked Owen to list the 10 best forwards in the history of the Premier League and put them in order of how bad they were to how good they were. It’s interesting that the former England player couldn’t fit himself in his own top 10.
10Mohamed Salah
182 Premier League goals
The person in 10th place scores a lot of goals, but most people wouldn’t call them a striker in the truest sense of the word. Because Mohamed Salah has been so good in front of goal since moving to Liverpool, it’s hard to blame the former Reds for putting him in his top 10.
The Egyptian had a hard time getting used to life in England at first with Chelsea, but since moving to Anfield in 2017, he’s been nothing but great. Salah has scored regularly for almost eight years, which is longer than anyone thought he would.
9Jermain Defoe
163 Premier League goals
Next on Owen’s list is Jermain Defoe, a scorer who doesn’t get enough credit. During his more than twenty-year career, the striker had good times with a number of different top-flight teams. The former Tottenham Hotspur player scored 163 goals in the Premier League. He was known for being short but very fast and having great finishing skills.
As an international player, Defoe also did well for England. He scored 20 goals for the Three Lions. After his great performances for his club and his country, the forward may have deserved more praise, which is exactly what Owen gave him here.
8Robbie Fowler
162 Premier League goals
Robbie Fowler scored the most goals for Liverpool in the Premier League before Salah came along. During his 19-year career, the Englishman never really set the world on fire for his country, but he did very well in England with the Reds and other teams.
Fowler reached heights in his first few years at Anfield that he never really reached again in the rest of his career. However, he still managed to play in the English Premier League for 15 years, which shows how useful he was to teams for over 15 years. Fowler was a great scorer and had one of the most deadly left feet we’ve seen in Prem League history.
7Robin van Persie
144 Premier League goals
Robin van Persie was a nightmare for players in the Premier League for 11 years, first with Arsenal and then with Manchester United. He was the key to Sir Alex Ferguson’s 13th and final Premier League title. It took the Dutchman a while to get used to living in England, but once he did, he could not be stopped.
Within his 11 years in England, Van Persie scored 10 or more goals seven times. After moving from Arsenal to United before the 2012–13 season, his 26 league goals were a big reason why the Red Devils won the title back from their local foes Manchester City. During his time with the Netherlands, he made 50 goals, showing that he could score at any level.
6Sergio Aguero
184 Premier League goals
Sergio Aguero did a lot more than score the amazing goal that won the league for City against Queens Park Rangers in 2012. It was the most famous moment in Premier League history. The man scored goals all the time and had an amazing knack for it.
Injuries slowed him down near the end of his time in England, but he was still very important to the Citizens whenever he was free. Aguero never scored less than 12 Premier League goals in his first nine years with City. If his career hadn’t been cut short by a heart problem, he would have become a cult hero at Barcelona too.
5Andy Cole
187 Premier League goals
Andy Cole was one of the first great goal scorers in the Premier League, and he got goals everywhere he went. The shooter played for several teams in the English Premier League, such as Manchester United, Newcastle, and Blackburn Rovers. He seemed to have no trouble doing well for any of them.
In the 1990s, his goals for Newcastle helped the club race for the title against Man United and Blackburn. But then he left for Old Trafford. He won five league titles with the Red Devils in the end and scored more than 100 goals for the team. He had a very good career resume when he was done. Interestingly, though, he never really did well on the international stage. In 15 games for England, he only scored once.
4Wayne Rooney
208 Premier League goals
You have to be a really great player to score the most goals for Manchester United all time. It’s true that Wayne Rooney did that. The Englishman came on the scene at a young age and blew fans away right away. People had high hopes for the forward from the start, and he lived up to all of them.
Rooney had a unique mix of speed and strength that had never been seen before in the Premier League. His heroics up front for Manchester United were a big reason why they were so successful in the second half of the 2000s. It scares me to think how many more goals he might have scored before he switched to middle near the end of his career.
3Harry Kane
217 Premier League goals
No matter what, Harry Kane is without a question one of the best strikers England has ever produced, even though he has yet to win a trophy. He worked very hard for Tottenham Hotspur over the years, but they didn’t get much in return. He was still great for the club. Kane has scored more goals than any other player in England’s history, and he’s still playing very well, so it’s hard to say how far ahead of the pack he’ll be when he retires.
Kane had 217 Premier League goals, so it looked like he would pass Alan Shearer as the league’s all-time top scorer. But his move to Bayern Munich in 2023 has kept that record safe for now. He could still pass his fellow Englishman before he hangs up his boots, though, if he goes back to England soon.
2Alan Shearer
260 Premier League goals
The Premier League’s all-time top scorer has to be on any list of the best forwards in the league’s history. Even though he only won one league title, Alan Shearer scored more goals in the Premier League than anyone else ever has. People tell stories about the great things he did with Blackburn and Newcastle.
He first signed with Rovers in the early 1990s, and his amazing goal-scoring helped them become the only team from their town to ever win the Premier League. He turned down a move to Manchester United and instead joined his old team Newcastle. He might not have won the title with the Magpies, but Shearer scored a lot of goals with the team he loved for the rest of his career, so it was still a great one.
1Thierry Henry
185 Premier League goals
If you ask any Arsenal fan who they think the club’s best player ever was, most will probably say Thierry Henry. A lot of fans also think he’s the best player to ever play in the Premier League, and it’s hard to fight with them after seeing how well he did for Arsenal while he was there.
During his time in north London, the Frenchman seemed to be able to do everything. He was so strong that no defence in the league could stop him, and he would beat up anyone who dared to try. During his time in England, Henry scored close to 200 league goals and won a number of big awards.
