Veni, vidi, vici â this is how you can describe Erling Haalandâs first season in the Premier League. Not only did the young Norwegian score more than anybody else, but he also smashed the all-time record for goals in the Premier League era. He scored 36 goals in 35 games for Man City. Itâs a crazy number by itself but even more so if you consider the legends of the game that Haaland overtook.
In this video, we recall the most prolific seasons by footballers in the Premier League era before Erling Haaland.
30 goals - Kevin Phillips (1999-00), Thierry Henry (2003-04), Robin van Persie (2011-12), Harry Kane (2017-18 / 2022-23)
Kevin Phillips is not a name that comes to mind when you talk about great Premier League strikers. In fact, this may not be a name so easily recognised by average football fans. But whatever they fed him in the season 1999-00, he digested it so well. He scored 30 for a Sunderland side that didn't even qualify for Europe, finishing seventh.
There are several reasons why Philips isnât known much better. First, he never replicated his form: he only scored as many in the three following seasons combined. Second, he failed with England: in his eight caps, he didnât even score once. And finally, he never moved to a top club, even at the peak of his powers. Asked why he never played for a top club, Phillips once said: âYou tell me! There were some fantastic strikers around, so perhaps that was a reason. Playing at one of the top-four teams wouldâve been amazing. Especially Arsenal, because Iâm an Arsenal fan."
Thierry Henry is a household name, unlike Kevin Phillips. He was so prolific in his prime that he won the Golden Boot four times, the most in the league's history. His most fruitful spell came in the 2003-04 season when he scored 30 and Arsenal won the league without a single defeat. And in all competitions, Henry finished the season with 39 goals and 15 assists.
To this day, many football fans are wondering how come he didnât win the Ballon dâOr. Those numbers would be fantastic for any player now and twenty years ago they were simply ridiculous. A common theory is that Pavel Nedved and Andriy Shevchenko reached or won the Champions League final. Meanwhile, Arsenal didnât perform in Europe as well as domestically, even if Henry scored more than Nedved and Shevchenko combined.
Robin van Persie was unstoppable in his last season at Arsenal. He won the Golden Boot by scoring 30 amazing goals in the 2011-12 season. But curiously, this isnât even the campaign everybody best remembers him for. In the summer of 2012, after eight years at Arsenal, Van Persie made every Arsenal fan hate him. He refused to sign a new contract and joined rivals Man United. To rub salt in the wound, he said those famous words: "I always listen to the little boy inside of me. That boy was screaming for Man United. From my side, and Arsenal as well, there are no hard feelings. That is life."
In his first season at Old Trafford, Van Persie scored just twenty six league goals for Man United, almost single-handedly won them the Premier League, claimed his second and last Golden Boot and became a United legend. The little boy inside got what he wanted.
Harry Kane is forever chasing personal records as his club is barely ever chasing trophies. The only reason he didnât win the Golden Boot last season was Erling Haaland. Kane scored thirty goals in a self-imploding Spurs side. In any other season, a striker with 30 goals would be all over the news. But thatâs the standard Haaland set that we donât talk about Kane as much.
As luck would have it, Harry Kane also scored thirty in the 2017-18 campaign but again conceded the Golden Boot. That time to Mo Salah. Super human efforts from Salah and Haaland are the only reasons why Kane has three Golden Boots instead of five.
If it's any consolation, Kane has every chance to beat the all-time record for the number of goals in the Premier League. He needs forty seven goals more to equal Alan Shearer's two hundred sixty. At this rate, it would take Kane another two or three top seasons.
31 - Alan Shearer (1993-94* / 1995-96), Cristiano Ronaldo (2007-08), Luis Suarez (2013-14)
Alan Shearer was an absolute goal machine. He could be another Man United legend banging in goals alongside other greats but he chose different paths. Despite interest from Sir Alex Ferguson, he moved to Blackburn Rovers. The injury impeded his first campaign, but in the following 1993-94 season, he scored a massive 31 goals but didnât win the Golden Boot! That was because a certain Newcastle striker scored more. It must be noted that the Premier League had 22 teams until the 1995-96 campaign.
So when Shearer equalled his 31 goals two seasons later, the league had 20 teams competing instead of 22. He did win the Golden Boot that time but his team only finished seventh. He scored more Premier League goals alone than his teammates combined. Alan Shearer did have one campaign when he won the league and the Golden Boot but more on this later.
Cristiano Ronaldo in his first Man United spell has this reputation for being a silky player, a dribbler, and an entertainer. But one United campaign was a preview for things to come at Real Madrid, where he would bump up his goalscoring output. In the 2007-08 season, Ronaldo scored 31 Premier League goals winning the Golden Boot and the Premier League title. He also claimed the Champions League and the Ballon dâOr that year.Â
To this day, this may be the finest Premier League season by a single player. Real Madrid was all over him and Ronaldo was pushing for the exit. Sir Alex convinced the Portuguese to stay for one more year in which he only scored 18 Premier League goals. He did help United to a domestic double and a Champions League final.
Luis Suarez was one of the good things about Liverpoolâs dark ages at the beginning of the 2010s. He didnât get off to a flying start, though. He scored four in the half a year following the transfer from Ajax and eleven the season later. But then his goalscoring output increased and culminated in 31 goals in the 2013-14 campaign, which saw him claim the Golden Boot. Sadly, his goals didnât get Liverpool any trophies, and at the end of the season, Suarez moved to Barcelona.
Weâll never know what couldâve been if Suarez hadnât missed the first five games of the campaign. He served an eight-game suspension for alleged racism towards Patrice Evra and the suspension carried over from the previous campaign.Â
32 - Mohamed Salah (2017-18)
Mohamed Salah is another player whose most prolific individual season saw his team win nothing. He scored 32 Premier League goals in his debut 2017-18 campaign, winning the Golden Boot. He scored 44 in all competitions but his Liverpool barely made the top 4 and lost the Champions League final to Real Madrid.
But unlike Harry Kane and Alan Shearer, Mo Salah won a lot of trophies in the end. In fact, heâs won every trophy so far at Liverpool. For example, he only scored 27 in all competitions a year after that campaign but one of those was the winner in the Champions League final. So, nothing to have regrets about.
34 - Andy Cole (1993-94*), Alan Shearer (1994-95*)
Andy Cole is best remembered as a Man United player. However, his most prolific season came at Newcastle. Cole joined them in 1993 when Newcastle were still playing in Division One, the equivalent of todayâs Championship. Newcastle got promoted and in the very first season in the Premier League, the 22-year-old Cole scored 34 goals winning the Golden Boot! Newcastle came third, which was a massive success for the newly-promoted team.
Is this a surprise that halfway through the following season, Man United poached him from Newcastle for ÂŁ6 million? Cole went on to claim many trophies, but he was never as prolific as that one season at Newcastle. In fact, he only ever scored 20+ goals once in all of the remainder of his career. He was still a fantastic player and formed a deadly partnership alongside Dwight Yorke, which culminated in the treble winning 1998-99 campaign.
Alan Shearerâs best individual campaign saw him score 34 goals, win the Golden Boot and the Premier League with Blackburn Rovers. You may look at Blackburn as surprise champions, but they actually spent a lot of money to beat Man United to the league title. Shearer wasn't one of the new players, but his teammate Chris Sutton was. The two formed a strong partnership, nicknamed the SAS, meaning Shearer and Sutton.
Shearer was never as prolific as that season, but he kept scoring a lot of goals for Blackburn and then Newcastle, which made him the all-time top scorer in the Premier League with 260 goals. He is one of the most consistent goalscorers of the Premier League era and it's not a surprise he was the first inductee into the Premier League Hall of Fame.
