Youngest players to score 50 Premier League goals

Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney are two of the youngest players to score 50 Premier League goals
Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney are two of the youngest players to score 50 Premier League goals / STRINGER/Getty Images
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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

Sutton completed his Premier League half century with Blackburn
Sutton completed his Premier League half century with Blackburn / Steve Morton/Getty Images

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

Cole hit his 50th Premier League goal at Manchester United
Cole hit his 50th Premier League goal at Manchester United / Anton Want/Getty Images

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

Heskey completed his half century at Liverpool
Heskey completed his half century at Liverpool / Alex Livesey/Getty Images

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

Rashford hit his 50th Premier League goal against Leicester
Rashford hit his 50th Premier League goal against Leicester / Pool/Getty Images

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

Kane is the youngest Spurs player to hit 50 Premier League goals
Kane is the youngest Spurs player to hit 50 Premier League goals / Clive Rose/Getty Images

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

Ronaldo hit his 50th Premier League goal the month before his 23rd birthday
Ronaldo hit his 50th Premier League goal the month before his 23rd birthday / HASSAN AMMAR/Getty Images

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

Lukaku hit his 50th Premier League goal against Aston Villa
Lukaku hit his 50th Premier League goal against Aston Villa / Nigel Roddis/Getty Images

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

Rooney is the youngest Manchester United player to hit 50 Premier League goals
Rooney is the youngest Manchester United player to hit 50 Premier League goals / ANDREW YATES/Getty Images

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

Owen had a half century before his 21st birthday
Owen had a half century before his 21st birthday / Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

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

Fowler is the youngest player to hit 50 Premier League goals
Fowler is the youngest player to hit 50 Premier League goals / Ben Radford/Getty Images

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.