Alan Shearer, who banged in an unbelievable 260 Premier League goals – a Premier League record – played for Southampton, Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United.
Do you want to read an overview of Alan Shearer’s career in less than five minutes without wasting your time reading meaningless waffle? Then read on, because I have the perfect piece for you!
My aim was actually for you to read this in two minutes (you probably can if you skim through it!) – but I couldn’t break it down enough and would’ve been leaving too much out.
Early Life
Alan Shearer was born in Newcastle Upon Tyne on 13th August 1970. He excelled at football as a child, playing as a midfielder, and played for Wallsend Boys Club – who have a history of developing young players, such as Peter Beardsley, Michael Carrick and Steve Bruce, amongst others.
Shearer eventually packed his bags and made the long trip down south to join Southampton on a youth contract in 1986.
Senior Career
Southampton
Shearer made his professional Southampton debut on 26th March 1988 and it only took him a couple of weeks to start making headlines as he scored a hat-trick in a 4-2 win against Arsenal. At just 17 years and 240 days old, Shearer became the youngest player to ever score a hat-trick in the top tier of English football.
Shearer stayed at Southampton for five seasons, scoring 43 goals in all competitions before moving to Blackburn Rovers. He was named in the First Division Team of the Year for 1991/92 in his last season.
Blackburn Rovers
Shearer signed for Blackburn Rovers on 27th July 1992, breaking the English transfer record when he moved for £3.6m. He scored 31 goals in 1993/94 and was named FWA Player of the Year as Blackburn finished second behind Manchester United.
Shearer fired Blackburn to their first – and only – Premier League title in 1994/95 when he scored an incredible 34 league goals. His goal tally equalled Andy Cole’s record from the previous season – this record stood until 2022/23, when Erling Haaland netted 36 times. Shearer won the Golden Boot and Premier League Player of the Season in the same season.
Shearer again won the Golden Boot with 31 goals in 1995/96 as Blackburn finished seventh. That was his last season at the club. In total, Shearer scored 112 Premier League goals in just 138 games for Blackburn. He was named in the PFA Team of the Year in each of his four seasons there.
Newcastle United
Alan Shearer signed for Newcastle United for a world-record fee of £15m on 30 July 1996. Newcastle, unbelievably, beat off competition from Manchester United and Real Madrid to secure Shearer’s signature. Shearer has said that he has never regretted his decision to go back to his boyhood club, even though he was guaranteed to win trophies at Manchester United.
Shearer banged in 25 goals to win his third Golden Boot in a row and his second PFA Players’ Player of the Year in his first season at Newcastle, as they finished second, behind Manchester United in 1996/97. He also got in the Team of the Year for the sixth time in succession.
Unfortunately for Shearer, this is the closest he came to a Premier League title with Newcastle. They were FA Cup runners-up in 1997/98 (lost 2-0 to Arsenal) and 1998/99 (lost 2-0 to Manchester United) but a trophy never came.
Shearer was named in the PFA Team of the Year for the seventh time in 2002/03, as his 17 goals fired Newcastle to third in the table. Would you believe that Ruud van Nistelrooy was named Player of the Season and won the Golden Boot, but wasn’t included in the Team of the Year? Shearer and Thierry Henry were the strikers included. Not that that has anything to do with Alan Shearer, but I thought it was interesting.
Shearer retired from football at the end of the 2005/06 season. He scored 148 Premier League goals in 303 games over 10 seasons at Newcastle.
Glasgow Celtic, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
England
Alan Shearer scored 30 goals in 63 England caps. England’s best showing during Shearer’s time was in Euro 1996 when they reached the semi-finals. Shearer scored five goals to win the Golden Boot and was named in the Team of the Tournament. He captained England to the 1998 World Cup, where they were eliminated by Argentina on penalties in the last-16, and to Euro 2000, where England failed to qualify from their group. Shearer retired from international football after Euro 2000.
After Retirement
Alan Shearer began working for BBC after his retirement and is still a regular pundit on Match of the Day at the time of writing.
He took over as Newcastle’s manager in April 2009 for a brief stint as the club tried to avoid relegation from the Premier League. His eight games did not go well – just one win and two draws saw Newcastle relegated.
Shearer was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2004 and the Premier League Hall of Fame in 2021.
One of the Best
Shearer is undoubtedly one of the best Premier League players ever. His record 260 Premier League goals may never been beaten. He likely would have scored even more had he moved to Manchester United instead of Newcastle – and definitely would’ve added to his trophy haul. Again though, he doesn’t regret it.
Alan Shearer – Premier League legend.
Thanks for reading, I hope I did Shearer justice in as little time as possible. If you got this far, I presume you enjoyed the article! Why not check out some of my other player profiles while you’re here?
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