Scoring a goal is perhaps the hardest part of and definitely the most important aspect of football.
Finding the back of the net is never easy at any level in football and even more so at the highest level of the game on the international stage where only a select few strikers leave a mark.
Representing your country on the international stage is one of the biggest honours in world football but to end up as the leading goal-scorer for your nation is another unparalleled achievement in itself.
Harry Kane is one of the few players who can lay claim to the title of the leading goal-scorer for their respective international team.
On 23 March 2023, in England’s opening UEFA Euro 2024 qualifier against Italy in Naples, Harry Kane scored his 54th goal for England and became England’s top scorer of all-time.
The then-Tottenham Hotspur striker scored that 54th goal in his 81st appearance, passing Wayne Rooney’s tally of 53 goals in 120 appearances for the Three Lions. He has kept scoring since: as of 26 September 2026, Kane has 86 goals in 122 appearances, 33 more than Rooney.
Here’s a look at the leading goal-scorers for the England national football team.
England top scorers of all-time
| Name | Goals | Caps | Years |
| Harry Kane | 86 | 122 | 2015-present |
| Wayne Rooney | 53 | 120 | 2003-2018 |
| Sir Bobby Charlton | 49 | 106 | 1958-1970 |
| Gary Lineker | 48 | 80 | 1984-1992 |
| Jimmy Greaves | 44 | 57 | 1959-1967 |
| Michael Owen | 40 | 89 | 1998-2008 |
| Nat Lofthouse | 30 | 33 | 1950-1958 |
| Alan Shearer | 30 | 63 | 1992-2000 |
| Sir Tom Finney | 30 | 76 | 1946-1958 |
| Vivian Woodward | 29 | 23 | 1903-1911 |
| Frank Lampard | 29 | 106 | 1999-2014 |
Harry Kane
Harry Kane scored on his England debut, 80 seconds after coming on in a 4-0 win over Lithuania in March 2015. The England captain reached 50 goals in his 71st appearance and took the record from Rooney in his 81st. He has scored 86 goals in 122 games, including five hat-tricks, and 14 of them at World Cups, the most by any England player; his penalty against Mexico at the 2026 World Cup was his 85th. His 86th, a header against Spain in the Nations League on 26 September 2026, put him 33 goals clear of Rooney in second.
Wayne Rooney
When Wayne Rooney first burst onto the football world, very few defenders fancied going up against him both at the club and international levels. His UEFA EURO 2004 displays for England still remain one of the standout displays by any English player in an international tournament over the last couple of decades. Not an out-and-out striker and more of a team man, Rooney had a tireless work ethic on the pitch to go with his prodigious talent. He scored 53 goals in 120 games for England before hanging up his boots.
Sir Bobby Charlton
A World Cup winner and Ballon d’Or recipient, Sir Bobby Charlton, who died in October 2023, held the record as England’s leading goalscorer from 1968, when his 46th goal took him past Jimmy Greaves, until Rooney surpassed him in 2015. An attacking midfielder who wasn’t shy of getting stuck into opponents on the other end of the pitch either, Charlton scored 49 goals in 106 games. He was key to England’s only World Cup triumph in 1966 and also netted four hat-tricks for the Three Lions.
Photo Credit: Alamy