Who has scored the most goals in FA Cup finals?
- Liverpool icon Ian Rush has scored five FA Cup final goals
- Rush lifted the trophy three times with the Reds
- Didier Drogba scored in four different FA Cup finals
By Euan Burns
The FA Cup final is one of the most important moments in the footballing calendar every year and it is attended by thousands of fans, as well as a host of celebrities and royal family members.
They may not always be the most thrilling games with so much at stake, but there are some players who thrive in that environment and are able to treat it like any other match. They are the players who end up reaching the most finals and scoring the most goals within them.
Take a look at which players have scored the most goals in FA Cup finals.
Which player has scored the most goals in FA Cup finals?
In terms of just the sheer number of goals that a player has scored in FA Cup finals, that title belongs to Welsh Liverpool legend Ian Rush. It is fitting, considering that he is the player with the most goals in FA Cup history right now.
Rush scored braces in two different FA Cup finals for Liverpool, as well as scoring once in the 1992 final, taking his tally to five, something that has not been beaten by anyone else so far. Rush won the FA Cup three times with Liverpool during his illustrious and successful career. Liverpool fans will perhaps be most fond of the fact that he scored 25 times against Everton.
Top scorers in FA Cup finals
Player | FA Cup final appearances | Goals |
|---|---|---|
Ian Rush | 3 | 5 |
Didier Drogba | 4 | 4 |
Nat Lofthouse | 2 | 4 |
Eric Cantona | 2 | 3 |
Stan Mortensen | 3 | 3 |
Jarvis Kenrick | 3 | 3 |
Which player has scored in the most FA Cup finals?
Read that carefully again. Ian Rush may have the most goals in finals, but he has not scored in the most different finals. That accolade falls to Didier Drogba. He scored in four different FA Cup finals for the Blues during his time at the club.
He scored the only goal in each of the 2007 and 2010 finals to help Chelsea overcome Manchester United and Portsmouth respectively, and he also got the equaliser against Everton in 2009 in a final the Blues went on to win.
That meant he had equalled Rush's record, but the 2012 final saw the Ivorian snatch it away. He got the winner as Chelsea beat Liverpool 2-1 at Wembley. It was a setting in which Drogba just seemed to come alive.
The situation had reached a point where the Blues were going into the 2012 final with a one-goal headstart because it was just inevitable that Drogba would be finding the net once again. It was after that game that Drogba moved on from Chelsea and spent some time at Shanghai Shenhua and Galatasaray, before returning to west London briefly in 2014.
Considering Drogba does not rank in the top ten all-time FA Cup goalscorers, the fact he managed to repeatedly produce in finals is extremely impressive and makes him the definition of a big game player.