9 Premier League greats we can’t believe Jamie Vardy has outscored
Jamie Vardy will leave Leicester City as one of the best strikers in Premier League history, having outscored several Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United legends.
In this age of elite academies and extensive scouting, you could be forgiven for assuming that the trajectory of late-bloomer, non-league to Premier League success story was a thing of the past.
But Vardy’s record of 143 goals in England’s top flight outstrips the total of these generational talents…
Didier Drogba
One of the biggest clutch players of all-time, Drogba’s prowess on the big occasion can sometimes mask his inconsistent form across a 38-game league season.
The legendary Chelsea striker netted 104 top-flight goals, but only scored north of 20 goals in two campaigns, compared with three by Vardy.
Leicester’s talisman averaged 14.3 goals per Premier League season, compared with Drogba’s total of 11.5 in a considerably better team.
Nicolas Anelka
Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City, Bolton, Chelsea, West Brom… Anelka has played for more Premier League clubs than most and has the goal tally to prove it.
The former France striker notched 125 goals in England’s top flight, winning the Golden Boot in 2008-09.
But Anelka remains strangely underrated by many, perhaps due to a combination of his club-hopping tendency and his perceived aloofness.
Romelu Lukaku
Yes, Lukaku has become something of a meme in the latter part of his career.
But we shouldn’t discount the striker’s goal record across two spells at Chelsea, West Brom, Everton and Manchester United.
The big Belgian fired in 121 Premier League goals in 278 appearances, frightening defences with his combination of power and precise finishing.
Lukaku outscored Vardy in the 2016-17 season, netting 25 times for Everton compared to Vardy’s 12 strikes for Leicester, but was normally overshadowed by the Foxes’ hitman.
Dwight Yorke
Yorke’s prime certainly came at Manchester United, as he formed a lethal partnership with Andy Cole that shot them to the treble in 1999.
However, while he was most clinical at United, he netted his highest tally of goals for Aston Villa.
There were three goals combined at the end of his playing days for both Birmingham City and Sunderland and a short spell at Blackburn.
Yorke managed 123 Premier League goals across his career, 17 behind Vardy.
Cristiano Ronaldo
Ronaldo scored 103 goals for Manchester United in the Premier League – but Vardy’s Leicester were one of five opponents he didn’t manage to net against.
He first faced them back in the 2003-04 campaign, where Gary Neville scored the only goal of the game as United won 1-0 at Old Trafford.
Leicester’s subsequent 10-year exile in the Football League meant Ronaldo wouldn’t face them until he returned to Old Trafford in 2021.
Two further bites of this East Midlands cherry weren’t sufficient for Ronnie to break his duck, casting questions over his status as one of football’s all-time greats.
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Ruud van Nistelrooy
Few players in Premier League history have a goal-to-game ratio as good as this Dutch penalty-box specialist.
Van Nistelrooy scored 95 goals in 150 Premier League appearances for Manchester United and needed just 68 games to notch his first 50 goals.
But the striker only played in England for five seasons, departing in 2006 after falling out with both Ronaldo and Sir Alex Ferguson, meaning Vardy has overtaken him by sheer longevity.
Fernando Torres
El Nino, surprisingly enough, doesn’t feature in the Premier League’s hundred club.
In fact, distil Torres’ game down just to the bare numbers and dare we say it… his record was a bit ordinary. Eighty-five goals and 29 assists in 212 appearances for Liverpool and Chelsea.
Only once, in his debut season back in 2007-08, did he break the 20-goal mark. Vardy’s output has far outstripped the Spaniard’s.
Luis Suarez
If Vardy was arguably world-class for a period, Suarez undoubtedly was for much of his career.
The Uruguayan’s prime at Anfield was a sight to behold, having come so close to inspiring Liverpool to the 2013-14 Premier League title with a crazy tally of 31 goals and 12 assists.
But he started out relatively slowly on Merseyside, meaning his tally stood at 69 Premier League goals in 110 games when he was sold to Barcelona for a club-record fee in the summer of 2014.
Dennis Bergkamp
Bergkamp was one of the central pillars of the success Arsene Wenger enjoyed at Arsenal, with a major role in all three of the Gunners’ titles in the Premier League era.
The Dutchman scored 87 goals and registered 94 assists in 315 appearances in the competition between 1995 and 2006.
To distil his game down to just the numbers, or his career to his honours list, would be doing a disservice to one of the most technically gifted footballers in the history of the game.
But that’s exactly what we’re doing here. Sorry, Dennis.