Youngest players to score 50 Premier League goals
By Ali Rampling
If there's one thing a football fan loves, it's getting over excited about a young player.
There's a long list of footballers who have made their Premier League debut as a fresh faced teenager, fans labelling them the future of their football club, before they fizzle into obscurity.
However, some do live up to the hype and the pressure and hit the ground running in the top flight. Here are the ten youngest players to have scored 50 Premier League goals.
10. Chris Sutton - 23 years, 188 days
Chris Sutton began his Premier League career with Norwich in 1991, hitting his first 30 top-flight goals with the Canaries.
In 1994, he became the most expensive player in English football history as Blackburn paid £5m to prise him away from Carrow Road.
Sutton hit 15 goals en route to Blackburn claiming the Premier League title during his debut season with the club, and grabbed his 50th top flight goal against Southampton in November 1996.
9. Andy Cole - 23 years, 140 days
Andy Cole's Premier League career began at Newcastle, scoring 43 top flight goals in just a season and a half as part of the Kevin Keegan revolution in the north east.
However, in January 1995 the Magpies stunned the football world by selling Cole to Manchester United for a British record fee of £7m.
It was at United where the forward would complete hit his 50th Premier League goal - netting his fifth in the Red Devils' record breaking 9-0 win over Ipswich in February 1995 to complete his top flight half-century.
8. Emile Heskey - 23 years, 101 days
Emile Heskey would score more Premier League goals during his first seven full seasons as a professional footballer (59) than he would in his final 13 (51).
The forward began his top-flight career with Leicester, making his debut as a 17-year-old and going on to score 33 Premier League goals for the Foxes.
Heskey moved to Liverpool in a club record £11m move in 2000, and would net his 50th top flight goal against Tottenham in April 2001.
7. Marcus Rashford - 23 years, 56 days
Marcus Rashford experienced quite the 2020; his campaigning resulted in two government U-turns over free school meals, he was awarded an MBE and he scored his 50th Premier League goal.
The United striker burst onto the scene in 2016 and became the club's third youngest Premier League scorer as he hit a brace on his top-flight debut against Arsenal.
Rashford's 50th goal came against Leicester on Boxing Day 2020, making him the third youngest United player to hit a Premier League half-century.
6. Harry Kane - 23 years, 34 days
Harry Kane already been shipped out on loan four times and was three months short of his 21st birthday when he scored his first Premier League goal against Sunderland in April 2014.
He netted his 50th a little over two years later, grabbing Spurs' fourth in a 4-0 win over Stoke in September 2016.
Kane has gone on to score over 150 top-flight goals for the north London outfit as he eyes up Alan Shearer's all time Premier League goalscoring record. Not bad for a one-season wonder.
5. Cristiano Ronaldo - 22 years, 340 days
Cristiano Ronaldo was a scrawny little teenage winger who loved a step over when he arrived at Old Trafford in 2003.
He would leave six years as the most expensive player on the planet, having scored 84 Premier League goals.
Ronaldo's first came against Portsmouth in November 2003 - aged 18 - and he scored two goals in the space of two minutes against Blackburn in November 2007 to complete his Premier League half-century.
4. Romelu Lukaku - 22 years, 192 days
Romelu Lukaku began his Premier League career at Chelsea, but he never netted a Premier League goal for the Blues.
The forward opened his top flight account during his loan spell at West Brom, and he would go on to net 17 goals for the Baggies during the 2012/13 season.
Lukaku grabbed his 50th Premier League goal during his third season at Everton, netting during a 4-0 win over Aston Villa in November 2015.
3. Wayne Rooney - 21 years, 54 days
Wayne Rooney burst onto the scene as a 16-year-old when he netted his first Premier League goal - a stunning solo effort for Everton against Arsenal - in October 2002.
Rooney would hit 15 top-flight goals for his boyhood club, before earning a £25m move to Manchester United in 2004.
The forward completed his top-flight half-century with the Red Devils, opening the scoring in a 3-1 Manchester derby victory in December 2006.
2. Michael Owen - 20 years, 254 days
Michael Owen scored on his Premier League debut for Liverpool as a 17-year-old against Wimbledon in May 1997.
He netted his 50th top-flight goal a little over three years later, the England forward grabbing a brace against Southampton in August 2000 - a game in which Liverpool had led 3-0 going into the final 20 minutes, but would ultimately draw 3-3.
Owen missed out on being the youngest player to 50 goals by just three days - but made up for this by becoming the youngest player to a Premier League century aged 23 years, four months and 12 days.
1. Robbie Fowler - 20 years, 251 days
It's a pair of Liverpool academy products that top the Premier League's young scoring charts, with Robbie Fowler and Owen the only two to reach a half-century while still aged just 20.
Fowler opened his top-flight account against Oldham in October 1993, at the age of 18.
The forward hit his 50th top flight goal against Manchester United in December 1996, netting a brace in a 2-0 victory. He's also the second-youngest player in Premier League history to reach 100 goals.