Top 10 Premier League players with most goals after turning 30

These footballers never lost the scoring instinct in the later parts of their careers

Leicester secured a huge 4-0 win away at Wolves as the Foxes secured back-to-back wins to move out of the relegation zone. 35-year-old Jamie Vardy scored their fourth goal, his first of the season. By doing that Jamie Vardy became the first player in English Premier League history to score 100 goals after the age of 30. Let’s take a look at the players to score the most goals after entering their 30s.

10. Paolo Di Canio (54)

The former Italian player Di Canio started his career at Lazio, later on playing for the likes of Juventus, Napoli, and Milan. He had a one-year stint at Celtic in 1996 before moving to the English Premier League with Sheffield Wednesday in 1997.

Di Canio was a temperamental personality but an undoubtedly skilled player who played mainly as a deep-lying forward but could also play as a winger and also fill in as an attacking midfielder. In 1999 Di Canio signed for West ham after serving his 11-match ban for pushing referee Paul Alcock. At West ham, Di Canio managed almost 120 appearances scoring 47 times. He played at West ham till 2003. Leaving on a free transfer to join Charlton Athletic for one season before returning to Italy, Lazio in 2004. During his time in the English Premier League, Paolo Di Canio scored 66 goals out of which 54 goals were scored by him after turning 30.

9. Didier Drogba (57)

Didier Drogba is regarded as one of the greatest African players of all time. The former Ivory Coast captain was signed by Chelsea for a club record £24 million fees in 2004 from Marseille. On debut season he helped the club win its first league title in 50 years

The former Ivorian player played for Chelsea across two separate spells in 2004 to 2012 and later on a one-year return to Stamford Bridge in 2014-15. Drogba won 2 consecutive league titles in the 04-05 and 05-06 seasons. And one more in the 2009-10 season with Chelsea during his first spell scoring 100 goals in 226 appearances. And won the fourth title on his return in the 2014-15 season this time managing to score 4 goals in 21 apps. Nonetheless scoring 104 goals is not an easy feat to achieve in the Premier league. Interestingly more than half of his goals, 57 to be exact came after he turned 30

8. Les Ferdinand (57)

Ferdinand began his career in non-league football, spotted by Queens Park Rangers was signed by them in 1987. After two loan spells at Brentford and Besiktas, he returned to the QPR side for the 1989–90 season. At QPR he scored sixty Premier League goals across 8 seasons. Before making the move to Newcastle where he was named PFA player of the year in that 1995-96 season, scoring 25 goals.

In his 30’s he was signed by Tottenham where he became more of a target man. He still managed modest returns at Tottenham, scoring 33 times in 118 appearances. In 2003 at the grand age of 37 Leicester City signed him on a free transfer. He was named Leicester's player of the year in 2003-04 season scoring 12 times in 29 appearances.

Les Ferdinand scored 149 times during his time in the English Premier League of which 57 came after he turned 30 years old for a team like Newcastle, Spurs, Westham, and Leicester.

7. Peter Beardsley (58)

Peter Beardsley was already scoring in the top division before the competition's inception. Premier League started in 1992 before that Beardsley had already played for Newcastle and Liverpool scoring over 100 goals for them.  Later joining Liverpool rivals Everton in 1991.In the new Premier League era Peter Beardsley almost in his 30s managed to make 185 apps in which he scored 58 times. Most noticeable during his second spell at Newcastle, scoring 47 times.Later on, he went to play for Bolton and had two loan spells at Fulham and Manchester City.

Beardsley finally ended his career at the age of 38 when he played twice for the Melbourne Knights in Australia.

6. Gianfranco Zola (59)

Among the most popular players in Chelsea’s history. After success with Napoli and Parma, he moved to Chelsea in a £4.5m deal in 1996. Gianfranco Zola made an extraordinary impact upon his arrival in the Premier League.

Zola became the first Chelsea player to win the FWA Footballer of the Year and the first ever to have done so without playing a full season, a campaign in which he scored 12 goals to hit the ground running immediately becoming a fan favorite.

The diminutive Italian despite arriving aged 30, spent seven seasons with Chelsea and scored 59 goals in 229 appearances for the club in the Premier League. His final season saw Zola score 16 goals to fire the Blues into the Champions League. Before returning to Italy with Cagliari in 2003.

5. Teddy Sheringham (77)

Sheringham is one of the Premier League’s most clinical forwards, playing for Premier League clubs – Milwall FC, Nottingham Forest, Manchester United, and Tottenham Hotspur – scoring 146 goals.

Sheringham was already 28 when Premier League officially started in 1992. He moved to Tottenham in 1992 where he was at his best form, playing for them till 1997. Before joining Manchester united in a £3.5 million deal. Enjoying huge success as Eric Cantona’s replacement at Manchester United.

Teddy Sheringham returned to the Spurs in 2001. During his second spell at Tottenham the Premier League goals kept coming. He further had spells with Portsmouth and West Ham, he was 40 when he scored his final Premier League goal. During his long and illustrious career, Sheringham managed more Premier goals in his 30s than he did before it, 77 to be exact.

4. Frank Lampard (82)

Frank Lampard began his career joining the West Ham academy, making his professional debut in 1996 for the hammers shortly after a loan spell in the Second Division with Swansea. After spending seven years with the Hammers where his father, Frank Lampard Sr also played. 148 league appearances and 24 later Lampard swapped east London for the west and signed for Chelsea for £11m.

At Chelsea, it was where he became a legend of the game, missing just five league games in his first six seasons combined at Stamford Bridge. And as a critical part of the team winning three titles - Back-to-back Premier League wins in 2005 and 2006 season and later on in 2010.  

Lampard won three Premier League titles, the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Europa League, four FA Cups, and two Football League Cups during his time at Chelsea. By 2014, Lampard had scored 177 Premier League goals of which 82 goals came after he was into his 30s. That is a goal every 3 matches not bad for a midfielder, aged like wine. He is still Chelsea’s top goal scorer in all competitions with 211 goals in 648 apps.

3. Alan Shearer (84)

An absolute legend of the game, Alan Shearer is the all-time leading Premier League scorer with 260 goals. Shearer started his career at the youth academy of Southampton F.C, debuting for them in 1988.

Ahead of the inaugural Premier League season in 1992, Shearer was sold to Blackburn Rovers for a fee of £3.6 million the most expensive player in British football. Shearer scored a total of 112 Premier League goals in 138 appearances across four seasons at Blackburn. He remains the quickest to reach 100 goals milestone in the competition's history, needing just 124 apps to do it. At rovers, he won the 1994–95 Premier League.After four seasons at Blackburn Shearer joined his boyhood club Newcastle United for a world transfer record-breaking £15 million. He added a further 148 goals in 303 appearances between 1996 and 2006 playing well into his 30s Alan Shearer managed to score 84 times after he turned 30 in just 188 appearances.

2. Ian Wright (93)

Ian wright’s career had a relatively slow start, as before he signed his first professional contract with Crystal palace just three months short of his 22nd birthday in 1985. Wright played for Palace for six seasons appearing 225 times and managing to score 90 times.

In 1991 he moved to Arsenal or a club record £2.5 million, many questions about this move as he was 27 years old at that time. In 1992, Ian Wright spearheaded a dominant Arsenal side leading into the Premier League era. Wright scored 113 Premier League goals in just 213 apps, that is a ratio of nearly one goal every two games. Overall Wright won two FA Cups, 1 League Cup, 1 European Cup-Winners' Cup, and a Premier League title.

From the 113 goals, Wright scored in the league record 93 goals came after he turned 30. Later on in his career, Ian Wright went on to play for West Ham United, Nottingham Forest on loan, one year in Scotland with Celtic, and in the end, returning to England with Burnley in 2000.

1. Jamie Vardy (100)

Jamie Vardy’s journey from Stocksbridge Park Steels, FC Halifax Town to Fleetwood Town, and finally to Leicester City is something everyone should know. Released at age 16 by his youth system at Sheffield Wednesday, he dropped down the tiers to sign for Stocksbridge Park Steels. He played three years of non-league football with the steels before being signed by FC Halifax Town and later with Fleetwood Town in 2011.

In 2012, Vardy signed for Championship club Leicester City for a reported £1 million. Like Wright, Vardy made his Premier League debut late on in his career – Vardy was 27 years on his top-flight debut in August 2014. Vardy was one of the key players in Leicester City's surprise 2016 Premier League championship.

Now, 35-year-old, Jamie Vardy became the first player in English Premier League history to score 100 goals after the age of 30.