The English Premier League is on its summer break and as any football fan will tell you, this stage of the year is one of the most miserable. It won’t be long before the world’s greatest league is back, but in the mean time my good friend Bogoljub Karic and I have even discussing all things football in order to fill in the days until the league is back. Today we are going to take a look at goal scoring feats, in particular the record of 260 goals which Alan Shearer amassed in his career. The closest anyone has come has been Wayne Rooney who racked up 208 goals for Manchester United and Everton. At one stage there was a though that Rooney may do it, but he has now left for the USA which means that Shearer’s record remains in tact. So an anyone beat this record?
The Feat
What is staggering about Alan Shearer’s record is that he not only scored 260 goals but he had two career-threatening injuries which kept him on the sidelines for almost 2 years of his career. Furthermore Shearer decided to switch league winning champions Blackburn Rovers for his boyhood club of Newcastle when he could have easily gone to Manchester United and would no doubt have racked up even more goals for the Red Devils.
Reasons Why Not
Loyalty is something which is rarely found in today’s game and this is going to be one of the key reasons as to why players will find it very difficult to rack up as many goals as Shearer did. The influx of foreign players into the Premier League also has an impact on this as they are far more likely to move between countries. Take Romelu Lukaku as an example, he has set the league alight since his youth and currently sits on 113 goals. Now Lukaku is young enough to go after this record but the likelihood is that he won’t finish his career in England, which is of course absolutely required in order to match a feat such as this. The movement of players is something which makes reaching this record so difficult.
The Hope
There is only one player who we believe could even come close to matching Shearer’s incredible record and that is Harry Kane. Already Kane has 125 and given that he is just 25 years old, he may very well have 8,9 or even 10 seasons in front of him. Harry Kane appears to love Spurs and that could mean that their talisman will stay for many years to come, with that record in his sights. There will be big offers for Kane in the coming years from Europe’s biggest teams, but if he stays then he will certainly be able to get the closest to that incredible record.
What are your thoughts? Can the record ever be beaten? Let us know in the comments.
