United lead the way for teenage goalscorers

Wednesday 07 February 2024 10:00

When it comes to teenagers scoring goals in the Premier League, nobody does it better than Manchester United.

Research from Opta has shown our club is the clear leader for this particular metric, with three more strikes than closest challengers Liverpool since the competition's inception in 1992.

Alejandro Garnacho's double strike in Sunday's 3-0 victory over West Ham United at Old Trafford increased our tally to 104, after Kobbie Mainoo's brilliant winner at Wolves nudged us one ahead of our arch rivals.

Our advantage in this chart is even more impressive when you consider the Anfield club have the leading two marksmen in this category, Robbie Fowler and Michael Owen. Both were very prolific from a young age - Owen found the net 46 times in the league before turning 20, while Fowler bagged 35 as a teenager.

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Twenty-one different teenagers have netted in the Premier League for United - another competition record. Arsenal are the next best at this, with 20 players netting before they turned 20.

Our full list of teenage goalscorers is:

Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Keith Gillespie, Nicky Butt, Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Giuseppe Rossi, Rafael, Danny Welbeck, Federico Macheda, Phil Jones, Nick Powell, Adnan Januzaj, James Wilson, Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial, Mason Greenwood, Brandon Williams, Anthony Elanga, Alejandro Garnacho, Kobbie Mainoo.

Macheda is the youngest, as he was aged 17 years and 227 days when curling in the memorable winner against Aston Villa in 2009.

As for all time, beyond the Premier League era, the ever-popular Norman Whiteside is the top-scoring teenager in United's history with 39 goals, ahead of George Best on 37.

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All the Angles: Macheda v Aston Villa

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MOST PREMIER LEAGUE GOALS BY TEENAGERS

104: Manchester United
101: Liverpool
82: Chelsea
66: Arsenal
44: Leeds United

Stats courtesy of Opta.

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