Goals win games and a prolific centre-forward is worth their weight in gold in football.
The Premier League era has seen its fair share of great goal-getters, but only a select few have reached the fabled landmark of 30 league strikes in a single campaign.
Erling Haaland and Harry Kane are the latest to achieve the feat, with each having had fantastic individual seasons during the 2022/23 campaign.
Following their prolific campaigns, we’ve decided to look back through the archives at the division’s most lethal forwards.
Here is every player to have scored 30+ goals in a single Premier League season.
Kevin Phillips – 30 (1999/2000)
Perhaps the most surprising name on this list, but having fired Sunderland to promotion the previous season, Phillips made an immediate impact on the Premier League by winning the Golden Boot in his first season in the top flight.
Phillips’ goals helped Peter Reid’s newly-promoted side to a seventh-placed finish, whilst his 30 league goals earned him the prestigious European Golden Shoe as the continent’s top scorer.
He remains the only Englishman to have won the accolade.
Kevin Phillips catching it sweetly from long-range ????#GoalOfTheDay // @SunderlandAFC pic.twitter.com/1Y4eZx0fcQ
— Premier League (@premierleague) January 25, 2022
Thierry Henry – 30 (2003/04)
The most prolific league season of Arsenal legend Thierry Henry’s Premier League career, the French forward scored 30 league goals during the club’s famed ‘Invincibles’ season in 2003/04.
Henry’s goals helped Arsene Wenger’s side secure the league title after a historic unbeaten campaign, his outstanding performances rewarded with a PFA Player’s Player of the Year and FWA Footballer of the Year double for the second successive season.
The season was also the first of three consecutive Golden Boots for Henry, with his overall tally of four awards the most in Premier League history.
When Thierry Henry scored FOUR against Leeds! ????
A thumping @Arsenal win ???? pic.twitter.com/DUqi4gHR6T
— Premier League (@premierleague) July 29, 2022
Robin van Persie – 30 (2011/12)
Having developed from troubled but talented winger into one of the Premier League’s leading forwards, Van Persie enjoyed the best individual season of his career during his final campaign at Arsenal.
Promoted to club captain following Cesc Fabregas’ departure to Barcelona, Van Persie fired 30 goals in a stunning season which saw him claim the PFA Player’s Player of the Year and FWA Footballer of the Year awards.
That magical left foot ????#GoalOfTheDay belongs to @Persie_Official… pic.twitter.com/omvaR6j0ur
— Premier League (@premierleague) May 16, 2019
He departed Arsenal that summer for rivals Manchester United in a controversial deal, where he went on to win a second successive Premier League Golden Boot in a title-winning campaign at Old Trafford the following season.
A masterstroke from Sir Alex Ferguson, with Van Persie the difference maker in the Scot’s final season in charge.
Harry Kane – 30 (2017/18)
Bursting onto the scene in 2014/15 with 21 goals for Tottenham, there were some who labelled the now England captain as a potential ‘one-season wonder’.
Hauls of 25 and 29 in the next two seasons soon dismissed that notion, before Kane smashed 30 league goals for the first time in 2017/18.
Remarkably, Kane’s tally was not enough to secure a third consecutive Premier League Golden Boot, only the second time a player has hit the landmark and failed to win the accolade.
Kane became the third player to reach 200 goals in the Premier League earlier this season and is chasing down Alan Shearer’s all-time record.
Harry Kane – 30 (2022/23)
Harry Kane reached 30 league goals for a second time during the 2022/23 season, with the England captain the rare positive in an otherwise disappointing season for Tottenham.
Kane set a new record after scoring in 26 different games during the Premier League season, while he became the first player in the division’s history to score 30 league goals in more than one 38-game campaign.
Simply incredible.
Harry Kane scored in 26 different #PL matches in 2022/23 – the most ever in a single season ???? pic.twitter.com/9Z9ge1buJw
— Premier League (@premierleague) May 29, 2023
Incredibly, Kane failed to win the Premier League’s Golden Boot in either season that saw him score 30 goals. He is the only player to have reached the 30-goal landmark in a 38-game season and not finished as the league’s leading scorer.
Alan Shearer – 31 (1993/94 – 42-game season)
The Premier League’s all-time leading goalscorer reached the 30 landmark for the first time in 1994, having seen his first full season at Blackburn interrupted by injury the previous year.
Shearer’s goals were not quite enough to fire Blackburn, backed by Jack Walker’s millions, to the league title, as the Lancashire side finished as runners-up to Manchester United.
Shearer’s 1993/1994 tally was also the first season a player scored 30 league goals and failed to win the Golden Boot.
Alan Shearer – 31 (1995/96)
A second feature on this list for the Geordie goal-getter, who fired 31 goals in just 34 games during his final season as a Blackburn player.
Shearer’s record haul of 260 Premier League goals is largely down to a prolific run in the mid-nineties, one which saw the forward score 112 league goals in just 138 appearances over four seasons at Blackburn.
That form saw Shearer’s boyhood side break the bank to sign him, as he completed a £15m world-record move to Newcastle United in 1996.
Cristiano Ronaldo – 31 (2007/08)
Cristiano Ronaldo’s transformation from skilful ‘show-pony’ into one of the world’s leading players was complete by 2007/08, when the Portuguese superstar scored 31 goals as United won a second successive Premier League title.
Ronaldo finished the campaign with 42 goals in all competitions, a haul which included a vital header in the Red Devils’ Champions League final victory over Chelsea.
Inevitable ????@Cristiano | @ManUtd | #GoalOfTheDay pic.twitter.com/zLuk05ES2w
— Premier League (@premierleague) September 27, 2022
His stunning season saw him claim the PFA Player’s Player of the Year and FWA Footballer of the Year for a second campaign in a row, before Ronaldo was named as winner of the Ballon d’Or for the first time later that year.
Luis Suarez – 31 (2013/14)
One of the Premier League’s finest individual campaigns, Luis Suarez plundered 31 league goals as Liverpool narrowly missed out on the league title in 2014.
Having missed the opening games of the season through suspension after biting Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic, Suarez returned in inspired form and scored 31 goals in just 33 games for Brendan Rodgers’ side.
#OnThisDay in 2013… a truly stunning Suarez performance ???? pic.twitter.com/xNrHsBrx8k
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) December 4, 2021
In prolific tandem with Daniel Sturridge, Suarez scored a series of stunning goals along the way as Liverpool were narrowly pipped to the title by Manchester City. His haul failed to include a single penalty, while he also registered 12 assists – second to only teammate Steven Gerrard in the Premier League.
Suarez was rewarded for his displays with a PFA Player of the Year and FWA Footballer of the Year double, adding to his Golden Boot and European Golden Shoe accolades.
Mohamed Salah – 32 (2017/18)
Liverpool’s decision to spend £36m on bringing Mohamed Salah back to the Premier League was questioned by some, with the Egyptian winger having struggled to make an impact during a previous spell at Chelsea.
Those doubts were soon removed however, as Salah embarked on one of the most prolific seasons in the division’s history.
A goal at Watford on his debut was a sign of things to come, as Salah continued to score at a prolific rate to send records tumbling.
On this day in 2018, Mo Salah toyed with Watford’s defense putting FOUR past them ✨
(via @LFC)pic.twitter.com/c01e3MbYk0
— B/R Football (@brfootball) March 17, 2023
Salah’s 32 league goals set a new record for a 38-game season at that time and culminated in a clean sweep of the Player of the Year awards at the season’s end.
Andy Cole – 34 (1993/94 – 42-game season)
Andy Cole hit 34 goals during a phenomenal first season in the Premier League in 1993/94. Then a 42-game competition, Cole’s goals fired newly-promoted Newcastle to a shock third-place finish, with the forward named as the PFA Young Player of the Year.
Remarkably, Cole also finished as the Premier League’s top assist provider in a stunning individual campaign for the then 22-year-old.
Cole’s tally was part of a career that saw him hit 187 Premier League goals, the fourth-highest total in the division’s history.
☝️ @vancole9 completed a #PL goalscoring first during the 1993/94 season… pic.twitter.com/ZOhcimwvbv
— Premier League (@premierleague) March 29, 2017
Alan Shearer – 34 (1994/95 – 42-game season)
A third appearance on our list for the Premier League’s all-time record goalscorer, in a season which saw Shearer fire Blackburn to the league title.
Shearer hit 34 league goals in 1994/95, his tally the first of three consecutive seasons in which he won the Premier League’s Golden Boot. The season was also the second of three consecutive years in which Shearer scored 30 league goals, the only player in the league’s history to have achieved the feat.
Having helped Blackburn to their title triumph, the forward was also rewarded with the PFA Player of the Year award, the first of two he claimed during his memorable career.
Clinical ????@alanshearer bagged one of his 1️⃣1️⃣ #PL hat-tricks #OnThisDay in 1995 pic.twitter.com/hLyBzlp5CX
— Premier League (@premierleague) January 28, 2019
Erling Haaland – 36 (2022/23)
Erling Haaland broke the Premier League’s goal record record during an incredible first season at Manchester City that has seen the Scandinavian shatter records.
Haaland was billed as a superstar capture upon his arrival at Manchester City last summer, but his performances have exceeded even those huge expectations.
The 22-year-old has scored 52 goals in all competitions, breaking the record for most goals in one season in all competitions by a Premier League player, surpassing Ruud van Nistelrooy (2002/03) and Mohamed Salah (2017/18), each of who scored 44 times.
3️⃣6️⃣ goals in his first @premierleague season! ????
The #PL Golden Boot winner, @ErlingHaaland! ???? pic.twitter.com/jAKZcTfmTm
— Manchester City (@ManCity) May 28, 2023
Haaland’s 36 league goals earned him the Golden Boot, while his season is the highest-scoring in English football since the Second World War. Only Dixie Dean has scored more goals in all competitions in a single season for an English club, after scoring his legendary haul of 62 goals for Everton in 1927/28.
The inevitability and ease at which Haaland has broke numerous long-standing records has been astounding.
Read: 90s Hitmen: Andy Cole, an elite marksman criminally under appreciated
See More: Golazo Merchants: The Boss of Bosses, Alan Shearer
