The latest England squad is upon us – and there will be only one more before Euro 2024. It feels like Dominic Solanke is about to get Andy Cole’d.
The following is a look at the highest English league scorers across Europe’s top five divisions in seasons leading up to major tournaments.
Some made the World Cup or Euros selection. An unlucky fair few did not – and often more than once.
Euro ’96
Alan Shearer (Blackburn, 31 goals) – made the squad, scored five goals in 496 minutes
Robbie Fowler (Liverpool, 28) – made the squad, scored no goals in 24 substitute minutes
Les Ferdinand (Newcastle, 25) – made the squad, did not make an appearance
Teddy Sheringham (Tottenham, 16) – made the squad, scored two goals in 466 minutes
Ian Wright (Arsenal, 15) – snubbed
Chris Armstrong (Tottenham, 15) – snubbed
“I have always said who to leave out would be the most difficult decision of my footballing life,” said England manager Terry Venables in May 1996, announcing his squad for the upcoming European Championships. It featured a mix of exuberant youth – Phil Neville was the youngest member at 19 – with vast experience provided by Stuart Pearce (34), David Seaman (32) and Teddy Sheringham (30). Thirteen of the 22-man squad had ten caps or fewer.
Venables’ most difficult decisions were to drop Rob Lee and Dennis Wise from his squad, but also to choose which of his in-form strikers to rely on for a first major international tournament on home turf for 30 years. The top four English scorers in the 1995/96 Premier League season made the cut, but Ian Wright and Chris Armstrong, who both struck 15 goals in north London that season, missed out. And not just on that Cathay Pacific flight.
World Cup ’98
Michael Owen (Liverpool, 18) – made the squad, scored two goals in 233 minutes
Chris Sutton (Blackburn, 18) – snubbed
Dion Dublin (Coventry, 18) – snubbed
Andy Cole (Manchester United, 16) – snubbed
Darren Huckerby (Coventry, 14) – snubbed
If you ever doubted the maverick managerial qualities of Glenn Hoddle, consider his England squad selection for the 1998 World Cup. Of the top five English goalscorers in the 1997/98 Premier League season, only teenager Michael Owen, whose international debut came that February, made his final 22.
His other three strikers were an injury-ravaged Alan Shearer, who had scored just two goals in 17 games for Newcastle, as well as Les Ferdinand (5 goals in 22 games) and Sheringham (9 in 31). They had scored fewer Premier League goals combined than Owen that season; it was quite the goalscoring burden to place atop 18-year-old shoulders. Although it turned out they were entirely ready to carry it.
Chris Sutton ended his own chances by turning down the opportunity to play for England B, while Dion Dublin got the nod over Andy Cole for Hoddle’s 30-man provisional squad. “Ian Wright and Michael Owen are in a similar mould to Andy Cole, but Dion Dublin can give us other options,” was the manager’s explanation for Cole’s omission, but Dublin joined him on the scrapheap when eight more players were cut. Including Paul Gascoigne, who took the rejection particularly well.
READ MORE: Ten shocking England tournament squad selections
England probably don’t regret taking Michael Owen in 1998
Euro 2000
Kevin Phillips (Sunderland, 30) – made the squad, did not make an appearance
Alan Shearer (Newcastle, 23) – made the squad, scored two goals in 270 minutes
Michael Bridges (Leeds, 19) – snubbed
Andy Cole (Manchester United, 19) – injured
Chris Armstrong (Tottenham, 14) – snubbed
As one of only three Englishmen to score 30 Premier League goals in a tournament season, Kevin Keegan could hardly ignore Kevin Phillips. The Sunderland striker stayed on the bench for each of England’s three matches at Euro 2000, yet his mere presence in Belgium and the Netherlands was just reward for a remarkable campaign with Sunderland.
With Michael Bridges justifiably dismissed as an unrealistic squad candidate, Cole ruled out with a toe injury and Armstrong criminally overlooked once again, Shearer was the only other top-scoring Englishman to make the squad. Owen (11 goals in 27 games), Emile Heskey (10 in 35) and Robbie Fowler (3 in 14) duly joined him.
World Cup 2002
Alan Shearer (Newcastle, 23) – retired
Michael Owen (Liverpool, 19) – made the squad, scored two goals in 371 minutes
Robbie Fowler (Liverpool and Leeds, 15) – made the squad, scored no goals in 45 minutes
Andy Cole (Manchester United and Blackburn, 13) – snubbed
Michael Ricketts (Bolton, 12) – snubbed
James Beattie (Southampton, 12) – snubbed
Darius Vassell (Aston Villa, 12) – made the squad, scored no goals in 98 minutes
With Shearer’s international retirement after Euro 2000, England were forced to experiment a little with their forwards for the 2002 World Cup. Owen was an inevitable choice for Sven-Goran Eriksson, while Fowler was picked after reigniting his goalscoring form upon leaving Anfield for Leeds.
Heskey (9 goals in 35) booked a seat on the plane again, while 36-year-old Sheringham (10 in 34) joined 21-year-old Darius Vassell in South Korea and Japan. Cole was ignored for a third straight tournament; Michael Ricketts was robbed.
READ MORE: Top ten players who were better for England than their clubs
Euro 2004
Alan Shearer (Newcastle, 22) – retired
Michael Owen (Liverpool, 16) – made the squad, scored one goal in 351 minutes
James Beattie (Southampton, 14) – snubbed
Kevin Phillips (Southampton, 13) – snubbed
Les Ferdinand (Leicester, 12) – snubbed
Shearer continued to expertly tease England by being the country’s top Premier League goalscorer in a tournament year during his international retirement.
Six other players reached double figures for goals in the league in the 2003/04 season, but the only one other than Owen to make Eriksson’s final squad was Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard (10 goals in 38 games).
James Beattie, Phillips and Ferdinand were joined by Cole (11 goals in 34 games) in watching Wayne Rooney (9 goals in 34 games), Heskey (7 goals in 35 games) and Vassell (9 goals in 32 games) take the remaining three striking places. Now there’s an international tournament forward line.
World Cup 2006
Darren Bent (Charlton, 18) – snubbed
Frank Lampard (Chelsea, 16) – made the squad, scored no goals in 480 minutes
Wayne Rooney (Manchester United, 16) – made the squad, scored no goals in 254 minutes
Marlon Harewood (West Ham, 14) – snubbed
Alan Shearer (Newcastle, 10) – retired
Steven Gerrard (Liverpool, 10) – made the squad, scored two goals in 410 minutes
James Beattie (Everton, 10) – snubbed
Darren Bent was outscored by only Thierry Henry and Ruud van Nistelrooy in the 2005/06 Premier League season. When England manager Eriksson was asked how he came to the decision to omit both him and another young, in-form forward in Jermain Defoe (7 goals in 15 games), he simply replied:
“Probably not too logically. Sometimes you do it on feelings as well and I am excited about Theo Walcott.”
It was the inclusion of the uncapped Arsenal teenager that was the true curveball. Rooney and Owen were struggling with injuries so the only fully-fit forwards in the final England squad for the 2006 World Cup were Walcott and Peter Crouch.
Not so, according to Eriksson. “Joe Cole is a striker as well so in reality we have seven defenders, nine midfielders and five strikers – it is depending on how you use Joe Cole,” said the manager. And he did score that bloody brilliant goal against Sweden, to be fair. But 16 years on, it is difficult not to wonder what might have been with Marlon Harewood leading the line.
World Cup 2010
Wayne Rooney (Manchester United, 26) – made the squad, scored no goals in 342 minutes
Darren Bent (Sunderland, 24) – snubbed
Frank Lampard (Chelsea, 22) – made the squad, scored no goals in 360 minutes
Jermain Defoe (Tottenham, 18) – made the squad, scored one goal in 173 minutes
Gabriel Agbonlahor (Aston Villa, 13) – snubbed
It turns out that Bent is the most unfortunate striker in England’s history. Four years after finishing behind only Henry and Van Nistelrooy in the Premier League goalscoring stakes before being overlooked for the 2006 World Cup, the Sunderland forward repeated the trick. Didier Drogba and Rooney were the only players to score more in the 2009/10 campaign; Fabio Capello ignored his claims this time.
Bent had been named in the Italian’s provisional 30-man squad along with Walcott (3 goals in 23 games), but both made way for Heskey (3 goals in 31 games) and his glorious step over against Algeria in the group stages. Gabby Agbonlahor never stood a chance and has been fuelled by that resentment into saying stupid things for money ever since.
Euro 2012
Wayne Rooney (Manchester United, 27) – made the squad, scored one goal in 207 minutes
Grant Holt (Norwich, 15) – snubbed
Danny Graham (Swansea, 12) – snubbed
Frank Lampard (Chelsea, 11) – injured
Daniel Sturridge (Chelsea, 11) – snubbed
Jermain Defoe (Tottenham, 11) – made the squad, no goal in 13 minutes
“He hasn’t given anyone opportunities – people like Nathan Dyer and Danny Graham from Swansea didn’t even get a look in, but that’s life,” said Grant Holt in October 2012, describing Roy Hodgson’s decision to overlook him for the England squad for the European Championships just months before as “ridiculous”.
Hodgson waited four years to offer a reply, using the public clamour to pick Mark Noble in 2016 as a more recent example. “There is always a player or two or three that are in the news with many people thinking they should have been selected or are better than the ones I have selected. There is only space for 20 outfield players and I can’t unfortunately cap every player who is having a good season. Before it was Grant Holt so there is always someone.”
Norwich’s Holt may have felt aggrieved at the time, as might Swansea’s Graham, but at least Daniel Sturridge took his omission well. “I’m upset about it, but not too much,” was his response from our new favourite Joey Barton-goading pundit. He watched Andy Carroll (4 goals in 35), Walcott (8 in 35) and Danny Welbeck (9 in 30) score three of England’s five tournament goals as they reached the quarter-finals in Poland and Ukraine.
And Lampard was injured; Hodgson didn’t just go rogue.
World Cup 2014
Daniel Sturridge (Liverpool, 22) – made the squad, scored one goal in 259 minutes
Wayne Rooney (Manchester United, 17) – made the squad, scored one goal in 194 minutes
Jay Rodriguez (Southampton, 15) – snubbed
Steven Gerrard (Liverpool, 13) – made the squad, scored no goals in 197 minutes
Rickie Lambert (Southampton, 13) – made the squad, scored no goals in two minutes
There was the decision to drop Ashley Cole for Luke Shaw, prompting the former’s international retirement. The call to only offer Michael Carrick a place on the standby squad was questioned. And just three of Hodgson’s final 23-man England squad had scored more than eight international goals.
“There were a number of decisions which were not easy to make,” said the manager at the time, but further forward, many were made for him. Seven of England’s top eight goalscorers in the 2013/14 Premier League season were chosen, with Southampton’s Jay Rodriguez (15 goals in 33 games) the unlucky outlier. Although, considering their early exit in Brazil, perhaps he was the fortunate one.
Still, at least Rodriguez’s teammate and the Wish version of Matt Le Tissier, Rickie Lambert, found a way in.
Euro 2016
Harry Kane (Tottenham, 25) – made the squad, scored no goals in 241 minutes
Jamie Vardy (Leicester, 24) – made the squad, scored one goal in 165 minutes
Jermain Defoe (Sunderland, 15) – snubbed
Troy Deeney (Watford, 13) – snubbed
Dele Alli (Tottenham, 10) – made the squad, scored no goals in 300 minutes
Unlike Holt before him, Troy Deeney took the unlikely prospect of international recognition in his stride. “I do not want to be put in because I scored a burst of goals just before the Euros; I want it to be over the course of the season,” said the Watford striker, who ended the 2015/16 campaign with an unlucky 13 of them in 38 games.
It was a respectable return, but England had a rare embarrassment of striking riches to choose from – remarkable when considering their actual performance at the tournament.
Harry Kane and Jamie Vardy were assured places next to Rooney, while Sturridge (8 goals in 14 games) was always likely to be picked if his body could withstand the rigours of time and a slight summer breeze.
The fifth striker spot was pitched as a battle between Welbeck (4 goals in 11 games) and Walcott (5 in 28), with Defoe (15 goals in 33) never considered a contender despite his Sunderland form. Yet even with an injury to Welbeck, Walcott was pipped by an inexperienced teenager; Marcus Rashford (5 in 11) had beaten him at his own game.
World Cup 2018
Harry Kane (Tottenham, 30) – made the squad, scored six goals in 573 minutes
Jamie Vardy (Leicester, 20) – made the squad, scored no goals in 157 minutes
Raheem Sterling (Manchester City, 18) – made the squad, scored no goals in 455 minutes
Glenn Murray (Brighton, 12) – snubbed
Wayne Rooney (Everton, 10) – retired
Gareth Southgate took the top three English scorers of the 2017/18 Premier League season to Russia and was rewarded with a Golden Boot and semi-final place.
There was a predictable and ever-so-slight clamour for Glenn Murray to be taken. Joey Barton implored England to “look at the form of” Nick Pope, James Tarkowski, Lewis Dunk and the Brighton forward but yet again Southgate the hypocrite picked his favourites.
Rashford (7 goals in 35 games) and Welbeck (5 in 28) had their passports renewed instead. The latter played 11 minutes of a World Cup group-stage dead-rubber against Belgium and was matched by Junior Stanislas (5 in 19) and Crouch (5 in 31), while being outscored by Dwight Gayle (6 in 35) in the Premier League that season.
Rashford only played 54 knockout minutes of a possible 330. Charlie Austin (7 in 24) and Ashley Barnes (9 in 36) had been more prolific.
Euro 2020
Harry Kane (Tottenham, 23) – made the squad, scored four goals in 649 minutes
Patrick Bamford (Leeds, 17) – snubbed
Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Everton, 16) – made the squad, scored no goals in 18 minutes
Jamie Vardy (Leicester, 15) – retired
Ollie Watkins (Aston Villa, 14) – snubbed
“Danny and Patrick Bamford have had very good seasons and I’ve said that before. We didn’t see any reason to change those positions,” Southgate noted of his provisional Euro 2020 squad, bringing Ings (12 goals in 29 games) into the conversation.
Watkins was one of the seven players cut from the initial 33 for the tournament, along with Jesse Lingard (9 in 16). Room had to be made for four right-backs, to be fair.
World Cup 2022
Harry Kane (Tottenham, 29) – made the squad, scored two goals in 403 minutes
Ivan Toney (Brentford, 22) – snubbed
Tammy Abraham (Roma, 20) – snubbed
James Maddison (Leicester, 19) – made the squad, did not make an appearance
Jamie Vardy (Leicester, 16) – retired
Raheem Sterling (Manchester City and Chelsea, 16) – made the squad, scored one goal in 150 minutes
Phil Foden (Manchester City, 16) – made the squad, scored one goal in 259 minutes
Bukayo Saka (Arsenal, 15) – made the squad, scored three goals in 293 minutes
Premier League/Serie A goals scored from start of 2021/22 season to November 2022
A 26-man squad afforded England some more leeway with their attacking options but a surfeit of wide forwards left Southgate trying instead to whittle his Kane back-up options down to one.
Abraham was leading that race at one point while thriving in Italy, but according to the manager hit “a poor run of scoring form at the wrong time”. A slight counter to that was the omission of a red-hot Toney as Callum Wilson (14 goals in 29 games) was given the nod based mainly on familiarity with the squad. The Newcastle striker crammed an assist against Iran into his 47 minutes.
Maddison was the other variable as the focus of The England Clamour, which was undermined by Southgate actually picking him and the Leicester playmaker then getting injured anyway.
Euro 2024
Harry Kane (Bayern Munich, 30)
Ollie Watkins (Aston Villa, 16)
Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid, 16)
Dominic Solanke (Bournemouth, 15)
Jarrod Bowen (West Ham, 14)
Bukayo Saka (Arsenal, 13)
Cole Palmer (Chelsea, 11)
Phil Foden (Manchester City, 11)
It bodes well for England that only half the current top league goalscorers across Europe’s five leading divisions are guaranteed squad picks for Euro 2024. Kane, Bellingham, Saka and Foden will be on the plane and that is certain.
Slightly less so is the identity of those joining them. Southgate is assured, as ever, to infuriate at least a couple of fanbases and have his quotes on form versus reputation dredged up yet again. How fun it will be when Rashford (7 goals in 27 games) and Jack Grealish (3 goals in 14 games) are chosen while Solanke and Palmer watch from home in the form of their lives.
The famous F365 Euro 2024 England ladder: Kane remains immovable but no Bellingham, no party
