Football
The Premier League’s 100 Club: All you need to know
Jamie Vardy is just one goal shy of making history and joining the Premier League’s 100 Club.
As the Leicester City striker bids to become the latest player to join the elite group of players on Wednesday when the Foxes take on Everton, we’ve taken a look at all you need to know about this highly esteemed club.
An elite few
Consisting of players that have managed to score 100 goals or more in the Premier League since it began in 1992, the 100 Club has an elite membership with just 28 having done so across the past 28 years, making it about as prestigious as it gets for strikers in England’s top flight.
Should Vardy make it into triple figures, he will not only become the 29th member of the club, but also the first player to join since Romelu Lukaku did at a record age for an overseas player while at Manchester United over two years ago in April 2018.
As for the first player to join the club, that was none other than Premier League legend Alan Shearer, who reached his ton in December 1995, while playing for the then reigning champions Blackburn Rovers.
Shearer leads the way
It’s Shearer who really has had the biggest impact among the 100 Club members.
As well as becoming its first ever member, Shearer also sits top of the pile with the most Premier League goals in history with 260 strikes to his name, some 52 goals clear of his nearest challenger Wayne Rooney.
If that’s not enough, Shearer, who netted 112 Premier League goals for Blackburn and 148 for Newcastle United, also holds the record for the fewest games taken to reach his century, doing so in just 124 appearances.
Tottenham striker Harry Kane was the second fastest player to reach 100 goals, managing to do so in 141 games.
Aguero the most prolific of all
Shearer doesn’t have it all his own way, however. The former England captain’s goals-per-game ratio of 0.59, having scored his 260 goals in 441 games, only puts him fourth on the list for most prolific strikers in the club.
Kane, Thierry Henry and Sergio Aguero all sit ahead of him with the latter the most prolific of all, with a goals-per-game ratio of 0.68 after netting 180 goals in 263 appearances, all during his time at Manchester City.
Elsewhere, while Lukaku was the youngest overseas player to reach 100 goals, it’s Michael Owen who is the youngest player ever to hit the milestone. beating off the likes of Robbie Fowler and Rooney for the record.
And while the majority of names on the list are of course strikers, 23 to be exact, there are also five midfielders – Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Matt Le Tissier – who have done phenomenally well to join the goal-scoring elite.
Van Nistelrooy and Ronaldo among those to miss out
As has been made clear above, the 100 Club features some of the Premier League’s greatest ever goal scorers – from Shearer, Rooney, Andy Cole and Aguero, to Lampard, Henry, Fowler and Owen.
But there have also been plenty of famous names to miss out, with Ruud van Nistelrooy, Dennis Bergkamp and Cristiano Ronaldo just a few of those who have failed to make the cut, showing what an elite club it really is.
The Premier League’s 100 Club in full:
- Alan Shearer – 260 goals
- Wayne Rooney – 208
- Andy Cole – 187
- Sergio Aguero – 180
- Frank Lampard – 177
- Thierry Henry – 175
- Robbie Fowler – 163
- Jermain Defoe – 162
- Michael Owen – 150
- Les Ferdinand – 149
- Teddy Sheringham – 146
- Robin van Persie – 144
- Harry Kane – 137
- Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink – 127
- Robbie Keane – 126
- Nicolas Anelka – 125
- Dwight Yorke – 123
- Steven Gerrard – 120
- Ian Wright – 113
- Romelu Lukaku – 113
- Dion Dublin – 111
- Emile Heskey – 110
- Ryan GIggs – 109
- Peter Crouch – 108
- Paul Scholes – 107
- Daren Bent – 106
- Didier Drogba – 104
- Matthew Le Tissier – 100
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