The exclusive English Premier League club Chris Wood just joined – and the big names who never made it
Tuesday, 13 May 2025
Chris Wood’s 20th goal for Nottingham Forest this season was one of his best – coming from a diving header to meet an early ball from Morgan Gibbs-White.
While it might not have helped his side beat English Premier League strugglers Leiecester CIty, it did secure him membership of the exclusive club of players who have scored 20 goals or more in one EPL season.
That 52-strong group is dominated by some of the biggest names to have graced that competition over the course of its 33 seasons.
England’s Alan Shearer scored 20 goals or more in one season seven times, while countryman Harry Kane did so six times, the same number as Argentine star Sergio Agüero.
Egypt’s Mohamed Salah has done it five times – including this season, here he is the golden boot leader, with 28 to his name – and so has France’s Thierry Henry.
Dutchman Ruud van Nistelrooy reached the milestone four times, while Erling Haaland has done so in each of the last three seasons. With nine years to run on his contract at Manchester City, there’s every chance the Norwegian will break Shearer’s record one day.
At the same time, there’s a host of big names missing from that club – players who never reached the 20-goal mark in one season.
Wood has 89 Premier League goals overall – as well as 11 assists, making for a total of 100 goal contributions. He sits 44th on the all-time scoring list, level with Aston Villa and England forward Marcus Rashford.
Of the 43 players ahead of him – a group headed by Shearer and Kane – 12 never reached the 20-goal mark in a single season.
A few are midfielders who might not have been expected to – Steven Gerrard, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes.
But there is also Jermain Defoe, Michael Owen, Robbie Keane, Nicolas Anelka, Dion Dublin, Peter Crouch, Yakubu, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Olivier Giroud.
Owen – the English international who starred for Liverpool, then had less notable stints at Newcastle United, Manchester United and Stoke City – is the most famous name on that list.
He twice scored 19 goals for Liverpool – in the 2001-02 and 2002-03 seasons – and twice scored 18 – in the 1997-98 and 1998-99 seasons.
Wood is the fourth player from outside the football hotbeds of Europe, South America and Africa to score 20 goals in one EPL season.
He joins Trinidad and Tobago’s Dwight Yorke, Australia’s Mark Viduka and South Korea’s Son Heung-min.
One more goal will give him trans-Tasman bragging rights over Viduka, who scored 20 for Leeds United in the 2002-03 season.
Wood’s previous record haul in one season was 14 goals – a mark he hit last season with Forest and in 2019-20 with Burnley.
His most recent goal was his 31st with his head. Only Crouch and Kane (both 40), Christian Benteke (33) and Giroud (32) have more.
Wood and Forest have two more matches to go this season, where they are fighting for a top-five finish and a place in next season’s Uefa Champions League.
The 33-year-old has played in the second-tier Europa League before, for Birmingham City in 2012-13 and Burnley in 2018-19, but never in the premier continental competition.
Wood’s 20th goal this season put Forest 2-1 up over 19th-placed Leicester City just before the hour mark on Sunday (Monday NZ time), but they conceded a late equaliser and failed to win for the fifth time in their last six EPL matches.
They sit seventh, one point behind Chelsea and Aston Villa, who are separated only by goal difference in fifth and sixth, three points behind Manchester City in fourth and four points behind Newcastle United in third.
Forest are away to West Ham United this weekend (kickoff 1.15am Monday, May 19 NZ time) then host Chelsea on the final weekend of the season (kickoff 3am Monday, May 26).