Mo Salah has the most Premier League goals ever for one age and the Liverpool forward is close to setting the bar for another, just like Graham Alexander.
Most Premier League goals as a 16-year-old – James Milner (2)
Three players have scored in the Premier League at the age of 16. But while James Vaughan and Wayne Rooney did so just once, Milner raised the bar. He followed his first goal on Boxing Day 2002 in a 2-1 win over Sunderland by helping Leeds to a 2-0 victory over Chelsea two days later, a whole week before his 17th birthday.
And he is still winning pre-season lactate tests going while Everton loans pathway manager Vaughan and former Plymouth boss Rooney both retired in 2021.
Most Premier League goals as a 17-year-old – Wayne Rooney (6)
It was just five days before the forward turned 17 that the delightful Clive Tyldesley implored us to “remember the name” of Rooney. He certainly ensured it would be difficult to forget, netting five more times in 2002/03 and then in the first month of the following season before reaching voting age to set a mark that may never be beaten.
Ethan Nwaneri has come as close as anyone but even his three goals at 17 are only halfway there before his next birthday in late March.
Most Premier League goals as an 18-year-old – Michael Owen (23)
Few 18-year-olds have ever captivated football on such a global stage as film connoisseur Owen, who spent perhaps the best 12 months of his entire career terrorising Argentina, being voted fourth in the Ballon d’Or, becoming the youngest ever Premier League Golden Boot winner and hat-trick scorer, and throwing apple cores in bins placed weirdly close to the TV.
To underline just how impressive the numbers are, Francis Jeffers is second with 12 and his entire Premier League career goals total of 25 was almost beaten by Owen’s efforts for Liverpool at 18 alone.
Most Premier League goals as a 19-year-old – Robbie Fowler (25)
Ten Premier League goals at the age of 18 were simply the precursor to 25 as a 19-year-old for Fowler – including what was the fastest hat-trick in competition history for almost 21 years until Sadio Mane (and Aston Villa’s defence) came along.
Nicolas Anelka (16), Rooney (15) and Romelu Lukaku (14) are distant chasers.
Most Premier League goals as a 20-year-old – Robbie Fowler (29)
There is a reason Fowler was only the second player to ever win consecutive PFA Young Player of the Year awards. The forward scored 64 of his 163 total Premier League goals before he turned 21. He really was incredible.
Most Premier League goals as a 21-year-old – Harry Kane and Cole Palmer (21)
The honour was once passed from Michael Bridges to Yakubu Aiyegbeni before Kane one-season-wondered his way through the 2014/15 campaign.
No-one came especially close to matching that tally – Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli both scored 15 while Marcus Rashford mustered 14 – until Palmer put together one of the more ridiculous years of individual Premier League brilliance largely from mid-table.
Most Premier League goals as a 22-year-old – Erling Haaland (36)
The 33 goals Andy Cole plundered for Newcastle at 22 – at least eight more than any other player ever – felt almost insurmountable for three decades. But it was one of many records Haaland goal-botted out of existence in 2022/23.
Most Premier League goals as a 23-year-old – Alan Shearer (31)
Already well into his 20s by the time the Premier League invented football, Shearer missed out on the chance to set even higher benchmarks. But he rectified that almost immediately with 16 goals in the inaugural season at the age of 22, and almost double that tally as a 23-year-old.
Kane (29) and Haaland (27) pushed him close. But neither of them have ever been called a c*** by Gary Lineker (as far as we’re aware).
Most Premier League goals as a 24-year-old – Alan Shearer (34)
“Pressure? What pressure? Pressure is for tyres,” Shearer presumably shouted in the face of a bemused Stuart Ripley while firing Blackburn to the Premier League title.
It remains a bit weird that a random member of that squad is now one of the most influential paperclip-counters at the biggest cost-cutting operation in world football.
Most Premier League goals as a 25-year-old – Mohamed Salah (32)
For an absolute age it was yet another Shearer hat-trick, the great man having scored 31 Premier League goals at the age of 25. But in his first Liverpool season Salah was as ludicrous then as he is almost a decade later. Being told you are not Salomon Rondon does something to a man.
Most Premier League goals as a 26-year-old – Kevin Phillips (30)
Very much the polar bear in Arlington, Texas of a top ten rounded out by Luis Suarez, Thierry Henry (both 29), Sergio Aguero (26), Carlos Tevez, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Shearer (all 25), Salah (22), Bruno Fernandes (21) and Rooney (20).
The most absurd individual season in Premier League history? Perhaps. Phillips scored 32.6% of his career top-flight goals at 26 for newly-promoted Sunderland to earn himself a European Golden Shoe under Peter Reid.
Most Premier League goals as a 27-year-old – Thierry Henry (26)
Already an Invincible by the time he turned 27, Henry ensured he became the first player to officially retain that European Golden Shoe with some similarly sparkling performances in 2004/05.
He finished that season with 25 goals and 14 assists – and it wasn’t even in the top two of most dominant campaigns he inflicted upon Premier League defences. Cue that funny mouth twitch he does.
READ MORE: 2024/25 Mo Salah to join Thierry Henry? Top ten individual seasons in Premier League history
Most Premier League goals as a 28-year-old – Les Ferdinand (32)
Not only does that record spans two seasons, it covers spells at different clubs with a £6m transfer from QPR to Newcastle in between. And Vinnie Jones was the keeper for one of those goals, the last in a hat-trick against Wimbledon after Ferdinand helped get Paul Heald sent off. That is heritage.
Most Premier League goals as a 29-year-old – Harry Kane (30)
It was Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (28) for the longest time but Kane poured his soul into his final Tottenham season to inspire them to *checks notes* eighth in the Premier League, the most lifeless of Champions League knockout stage exits to AC Milan and early elimination from both domestic cups. It’s a wonder he left.
Most Premier League goals as a 30-year-old – Ian Wright (27)
The standard-bearer for late career blossoming, Wright was for years held as proof that Premier League life can begin at 30. His haul included consecutive hat-tricks away at Ipswich and Southampton, a feat he could probably still achieve at 61 considering their struggles.
Most Premier League goals as a 31-year-old – Alan Shearer (23)
“Pressure? What pressure? Pressure is for tyres,” Shearer presumably shouted in the face of a bemused Clarence Acuna while firing Newcastle to Champions League qualification.
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Most Premier League goals as a 32-year-old – Jamie Vardy (28)
Didier Drogba might have deemed it a job well done in setting the bar at 19 goals, beating Wright’s 18 which stood for quite some time. But this season alone Chris Wood took his tally to 20 while Salah, with the rest of a laughable season remaining before he turns 33 in June, is currently on 25.
It doesn’t seem likely that the Egyptian is doing it on an exclusive diet of Red Bull and Skittles vodka either.
Most Premier League goals as a 33-year-old – Alan Shearer and Ian Wright (22)
That feels fitting and it was probably all they spoke about behind the scenes on Match of the Day, obviously before Lineker jokingly called one of them something vulgar.
Most Premier League goals as a 34-year-old – Teddy Sheringham and Glenn Murray (16)
A Manchester United signing at 31, a Treble-winner at 33, and the oldest PFA Player of the Year award winner at 35 after a stellar 2000/01 season aged 34. But even Sheringham would have to admit Murray’s mint.
Most Premier League goals as a 35-year-old – Zlatan Ibrahimovic (13)
“As I said when I was in England, you’re lucky I didn’t come 10 years ago, because if I did what I did at 35 years old, imagine it if I was 25,” said Ibrahimovic a year or so after his brief dalliance with the Premier League ended.
He once complained about having £1 deducted on his payslip for having a fruit juice from the hotel mini-bar before an away game. He and Sir Jim Ratcliffe would have got on famously.
Most Premier League goals as a 36-year-old – Gianfranco Zola (14)
The “clever little so-and-so” who “annoyed” Sir Alex Ferguson was already 30 when he made his career-defining move to Chelsea. But the Blues squeezed seven seasons out of the little genius, whose parting gift was to be their top scorer in the Roman Abramovich-baiting 2002/03 season.
Most Premier League goals as a 37-year-old – Cristiano Ronaldo (11)
It felt like Teddy Sheringham and his ten goals would never be beaten, especially when he became the oldest player to score three times in a single Premier League game in a 4-0 win over Bolton in what should only ever be described as a gerihat-trick.
But then Ronaldo decided to personally set Manchester United back another few years while meticulously torching his prospects of playing in Europe ever again, admittedly while scoring a few goals along the way.
Most Premier League goals as a 38-year-old – Graham Alexander (6)
Alexander Graham Bell might have invented the telephone, but Graham Alexander invented being bloody sick at penalties.
Ryan Giggs and Stuart Pearce are the only other players to have scored more than once in the Premier League at 38. Vardy has a couple of months left to add to his solitary strike, which inevitably came against Spurs.
Most Premier League goals as a 39-year-old – Teddy Sheringham (6)
Liverpool refused to sanction a move for Sheringham because “at the age of 27 or whatever” he was deemed “too old to be a good investment”. So of course he continued to score with relative frequency for another decade or so.
Only four other players have scored in the Premier League aged 39: Dean Windass, Ashley Young (both once), Ryan Giggs (twice) and Thiago Silva (three times).
Most Premier League goals as a 40-year-old – Teddy Sheringham (2)
Only one player has scored in the Premier League after turning 40; just four outfielders have even played in the competition at such an age and Giggs, Phillips and Gordon Strachan could not keep up with Teddy.
