Jamie Vardy made history last weekend when he joined the Premier League’s fabled 100 club, the Leicester forward reaching a century of top flight goals with a clinically taken brace against Crystal Palace.
Vardy’s landmark continues a meteoric rise for a striker playing non-league football just eight years ago, the 33-year-old the first Foxes player to reach 100 top flight goals since Arthur Lochhead during the 1933/34 campaign.
He becomes the 29th player to reach a century of Premier League goals and his record now stands at 101 goals in just 206 appearances, but how does Vardy compare to the other active members of the 100 club?
Here are the rankings of every member of the Premier League’s 100 club still playing:
Jamie Vardy – 102 goals
The man of the moment and a player who has established himself as one of the Premier League’s finest finishers over the past few seasons, Vardy reached a landmark 100 goals last weekend as he continued his pursuit of the division’s Golden Boot.
Leicester’s £1m capture of the forward from non-league Fleetwood Town has proven to be an inspired piece of business, Vardy the fourth-highest goalscorer in the club’s history and amongst the key figures behind their improbable title triumph during the 2015/16 campaign.
Vardy’s double against Crystal Palace means that he has now scored 20+ Premier League goals in three separate campaigns, whilst he has his sights firmly on securing a maiden Golden Boot with the star currently two goals clear of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang as the league’s leading scorer.
Romelu Lukaku – 113 goals
Romelu Lukaku became the first Belgian player to join the Premier League’s 100 club during a goal-laden spell in English football, the forward scoring prolifically during spells with West Brom, Everton and Manchester United.
Lukaku initially arrived in the Premier League at Chelsea but failed to score a league goal during his time at Stamford Bridge, flourishing during loan spells away from the club before a permanent move to Everton.
An impressive tally of 68 goals in just 141 league appearances on Merseyside prompted Manchester United to splash £75m on the star, who continued to find the back of the net with regularity during a two-season stint at Old Trafford.
Criticism of his overall game and contribution blighted his time with the Red Devils, but only eight members of the Premier League’s 100 club can boast a better goal-per-game ratio than the now Inter Milan forward.
Harry Kane – 138 goals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ln6WBPwHe9E
Amongst the leading names in the Premier League at present, only the Premier League’s all-time record goalscorer, Alan Shearer, has reached a century of top-flight goals in quicker fashion than Harry Kane.
The Tottenham forward burst onto the scene with the north London side and has since established himself as one of world football’s best, winning two Premier League Golden Boots and hitting 20+ league goals in four consecutive campaigns before an injury-hit past couple of seasons.
His current record stands at an incredible 138 goals in just 205 league appearances and the 26-year-old – fitness permitting – will harbour ambitions of overhauling Shearer’s long-standing record as the greatest goalscorer the division has seen.
Jermain Defoe – 162 goals
Perhaps an underrated presence amongst the Premier League’s 100 club, Jermain Defoe is the eighth-highest scoring player in the league’s history following spells at the likes of West Ham, Tottenham, Portsmouth and Sunderland.
Defoe’s style perhaps harks back to a bygone era, a penalty-box poacher whose qualities become somewhat nullified amidst the modern preference for sole strikers with all-action styles.
The former England international is, however, a wonderfully natural finisher, a player who relies on intelligent movement and lights up when an opportunity arises within the widths of the goal-posts.
His Premier League haul looks unlikely to be added to as the 37-year-old plays out the twilight of his career in Scotland with Rangers, but a tally of 17 goals in all competitions this season proves there’s life in the old dog yet.
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Sergio Aguero – 180 goals
Manchester City’s all-time record goalscorer and the highest-scoring non-English player in Premier League history, Sergio Aguero has set record after record tumbling during a sensational nine-year spell at the Etihad.
Aguero has scored with unprecedented regularity since signing for City from Atletico Madrid, possessing the best minute-per-goal and joint-best goal-per-game ratios in the history of the Premier League.
One of just two players – alongside former Arsenal star Thierry Henry – to score 20+ goals in five consecutive league seasons, Aguero also moved ahead of Alan Shearer for the most Premier League hat-tricks with a treble against Aston Villa earlier this season.
There is a sense, however, that Aguero remains under-appreciated despite his ever-lengthening list of achievements and honours, the Argentina international perhaps a victim of his continued and expected excellence around goal.
Wayne Rooney – 208 goals
The highest-scoring active member of the Premier League’s 100 club, Wayne Rooney became just the second player to reach 200 goals in the division during a career that has seen the forward become the all-time record goalscorer for both Manchester United and England.
Rooney scored 253 goals in all competitions for the Red Devils in between two spells at boyhood side Everton, the former England captain rightfully recognised amongst the best players of the modern era.
A street-footballer from humble beginnings in Liverpool, Rooney’s combined an all-action style with sublime technique throughout a career that delivered five league titles and the Champions League amongst his major honours.
Currently combining a coaching position with a playing role at second tier Derby County, Rooney could yet add to his tally as the in-form Rams make a late surge for the Championship play-offs and promotion.
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