West Ham, Liverpool and Chelsea stars among Premier League's most prolific for headed goals
- Michael Graham
- 2 March 2022
Players who score with headers are fun. They always have been and they always will be. The Premier League is not short of them, with West Ham, Liverpool and Chelsea stars among the best.
Everybody loves a header. Football can tactically evolve all it wants, but the sight of a cross coming into the box and being met with a crashing header into the back of the net is a joy that will never subside.
It does feel like headers are becoming a bit of a lost art in the Premier League right now, but there are still some real masters in the Premier League.
So, let's take a look at which current Premier League players have scored the most headers in the competition.
*Statistics from premierleague.com and correct as of March 2, 2022.
Sadio Mane - 14
Percentage of total goals scored: 13%
Mane is a member of the Premier League 100 club but no someone who you would generally associate with headed goals.
That said, given the service he receives from Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson at Liverpool, it stands to reason he would feature on this list.
Mane is a master at ghosting in at the far post, and it's proven a very rich source of goals in his Liverpool career.
Craig Dawson - 14
Percentage of total goals scored: 76%
Now we're talking. Brilliant goalscoring attackers scoring headers are all well and good, but centre-backs doing it are much more fun.
Craig Dawson is the only defender to make this list and the Premier League website lists him as the top scorer among current defenders.
In fact, the West Ham centre-back is closing in on John Terry as the top-scoring defender in the Premier League since 2007.
There are not many players out there better at attacking a ball at a set-piece, and the statistics certainly back that up.
Jamie Vardy - 15
Percentage of total goals scored: 12%
No one will be surprised to see Jamie Vardy on this list given the sheet volume of Premier League goals he has scored.
Vardy has 128 goals in 261 Premier League games to his name and roughly one in ten are scored with his head.
His heading is not what he is known for by any means, but it's obviously good enough.
Danny Welbeck - 16
Percentage of total goals scored: 30%
Danny Welbeck has scored 53 goals in around 260 appearances, so he has not been an especially prolific goalscorer at this level.
Injuries had had a lot to do with that, in fairness, but one thing no one can accuse the former Manchester United man of is a lack of prowess in the air.
Almost a third of his total goals in the Premier League have been scored with headers, which is very respectable by anyone's standards.
Roberto Firmino - 16
Percentage of total goals scored: 23%
The quality of delivery from Robertson and Alexander Arnold is again in full view as a second Liverpool player makes our list.
Roberto Firmino has seen his influence at Liverpool diminish slightly of late with Diogo Jota's brilliant form, but the Brazilian has been a consistent goalscorer for the Anfield side for seven years now.
Nearly a quarter of his goals in the competition have come with his head, and that will not surprise anyone.
Chris Wood - 17
Percentage of total goals scored: 34%
There were eyebrows raised to say the least when Newcastle signed Wood in a deal worth up to £30million in January, but no one can question his strength in the air.
Wood is yet to score for his new club, but he became a force at Burnley, hitting double-figures for goals in four successive seasons.
The New Zealand international is reliant upon quality service for his goals, but get the ball in the right areas for him and the stats show he will be a major aerial threat.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin - 18
Percentage of total goals scored: 42%
Everybody knows that Dominic Calvert-Lewin has blossomed into a quality centre-forward and it's no secret he is good with his head.
That said, it may be a bit of a surprise to many to see that he has scored nearly half of his total Premier League goals with his head.
The Everton man has struggled with injury this season, and that's starting to look like a key reason why the Toffees have found themselves among the relegation scrap.
Michail Antonio - 21
Percentage of total goals scored: 39%
The days of Michail Antonio being any kind of a surprise package in the Premier League are long gone.
Antonio is on course for a third successive season hitting double-figures for Premier League goals and he has become a consistent menace at this level.
Interestingly, only one of his eight goals this season has come via a header, but that is very much out of keeping with his wider record.
Romelu Lukaku - 25
Percentage of total goals scored: 21%
Lukaku is going through some high-profile struggles at Chelsea right now, but you don't see many writing off the Belgian and rightly so.
He only has five goals in the Premier League to his name this season, and two of them have been headers.
Historically around one in five of his 118 goals in the competition have been scored with his head, so it's certainly something he has in his locker.
Harry Kane - 27
Percentage of total goals scored: 16%
You'd be hard pressed to find a more complete centre-forward in the world than Harry Kane right now, so if anything it might be a bit of a shock that only 16% of his 174 Premier League goals have been scored with his head.
On the other hand, it probably only serves to highlight how brilliant he is with his feet.
Kane has been matching that rate this season too, with him scoring just one header - the dramatic winner against Manchester City - from his seven Premier League goals so far this season.
Christian Benteke - 33
Percentage of total goals scored: 38%
The only real surprise with Benteke here is that
only 38% of his 86 Premier League goals have been headers.
Benteke has been in England's top division for nine years now and he has had impressive pest value for the most part. If you were going to summarise him as a player, though, you'd probably be tempted to put him down as a target-man type who was only really especially good at heading that ball.
Evidently, that judgement would be unfair, though. Benteke is certainly a consistent threat in the air, but not to the point where headers provide the majority of his goals.
