Over the years, England have been blessed with some very talented goalscorers. The likes of Harry Kane and Wayne Rooney have burst onto the scene and scored goals for fun under the brightest lights. An Englishman, Alan Shearer, is the top scorer in Premier League history. There's been a plethora of hitmen hailing from England and while there's been plenty of debate as to who is the greatest forward to ever come out of the country, men are agreed on one thing.
And tha is that Harry Kane and Wayne Rooney are certainly the best two English strikers of their generation at least. The latter spent most of his career in the Premier League, representing Everton and Manchester United. He became the Red Devils' all-time leading goalscorer due to his exploits in front of goal and was even England's top scorer for a while too. That was until the former came along. Kane made a name for himself at Tottenham Hotspur and hit the back of the net at an astonishing rate in England. He was on track to become the Premier League's record scorer, usurping Shearer at the top, but his move to Bayern Munich in 2023 put that plan on hold.
Still, he's continued scoring for fun in Germany and surpassed Rooney as England's all-time leading scorer. There are very few who will argue that the two aren't the best England strikers of their generation. Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca doesn't agree, though. He thinks another ex-Premier League striker was better.
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While Kane and Rooney have performed at the highest level for both club and country, Maresca actually thinks one of his former players was better than both of them and that was Jamie Vardy. The pair worked together for one year during Maresca's season-long stint as Leicester City manager and they earned promotion to the Premier League alongside one another. Despite being well past his prime at the time, Vardy still clearly made an impression on the coach and he admitted that he thinks the striker is the best of his generation.
Speaking to BBC Sport about Vardy, Maresca said:
"[Jamie] Vardy is fantastic and people don't realise how good he is. I know that England has been quite lucky with strikers, like Kane, Rooney and many others, but if you ask me he has been the best one. He can do many things, like run in behind and finish, but the best thing for me is his open mind.
"Last year he changed the way he was playing by dropping in, linking the play and he still wants to learn. But of course he still has the one thing that is most difficult to find, which is to score goals. He can be out for one week, without training, and play on the Saturday or Sunday and he's the one who scores."
Vardy recently left Leicester after an incredible 13-year run with the Foxes. He joined the team for just £1m from a Fleetwood Town side who were playing in the National League at the time. Many considered the deal to have been an overpay, but he proved the doubters wrong and then some in the years after. Vardy was instrumental in taking Leicester back to the Premier League and then helping them defy all the odds to lift the top flight trophy.
He scored 200 goals in 500 appearances for the Foxes, but despite his success at club level, his international career never really took off the same way. Vardy scored just seven goals for England across 26 games. A number that pales in comparison to Kane and Rooney's return for the Three Lions. Still, Maresca holds him higher than both.
All statistics courtesy of Transfermarkt and accurate as of 17/06/2025