Everton have been blessed with some of the finest goal scorers in English football history.
From the unstoppable Dixie Dean to the lethal Graeme Sharp, these five men sit at the top of the club’s all-time scoring chart for the Toffees. Here they are.
1. Dixie Dean – 317 goals
William Ralph ‘Dixie’ Dean signed for Everton in March 1925. He remains the only player in English football to score 60 league goals in one season. In 1927-28, the 21‑year‑old netted 60 goals in just 39 games. Across his career, Dean scored 473 goals in 502 appearances for club and country. He was twice the First Division’s leading scorer, and both times Everton were champions (1928 and 1932). He stayed with the club when they were relegated between those titles. For England, he scored 18 goals in 16 appearances.
Sir Matt Busby, who played against him, said, “When Dixie went up for the ball, he was almost unstoppable.” Liverpool manager Bill Shankly described Dean as the greatest centre forward the game had ever seen.
Dean died aged 73 in March 1980. He won two Division One Championships and one FA Cup. His 60‑league‑goal record has never been broken.
2. Graeme Sharp – 148 goals
Born 16 October 1960, Graeme Sharp signed from Dumbarton for £120,000 in 1980. He scored 148 goals in 447 appearances and won two league titles, the FA Cup, and the European Cup Winners’ Cup during his 11‑year stint.
Sharp established a reputation as one of the finest strikers in the world. He became a Goodison Park hero during the successful 1980s, when Everton won two League Championships, the FA Cup, the European Cup‑Winners’ Cup and came within an ace of a historic treble in 1984‑85.
Ian Rush appreciated Sharp’s qualities and named the Scot as his ideal partner when asked by Juventus who he would most like to play alongside. Sharp played 12 times for Scotland between 1985 and 1988. His key role in Everton’s golden era led to his inclusion in the club’s “Greatest Ever Team” following a poll on the 125th anniversary.
3. Bob Latchford – 135 goals
Bob Latchford, born 18 January 1951, joined Everton in February 1974 as part of the swap that took Howard Kendall to Birmingham City. He eventually left for Swansea in 1981 and was adored by his fans. He transferred from Birmingham City for £350,000, a British transfer record at the time.
At Everton, Latchford was the top scorer for six successive seasons. He scored 30 goals in the 1977‑78 season, winning a £10,000 prize offered by a national newspaper for the first footballer to reach that number.
Speaking about his famous two goals to win the prize, Latchford said: “What topped the day off was the great man himself William Ralph Dean was sitting in the stand watching me do that, and that was almost 50 years to the day since he scored his 60th goal. I think everything came together that day.”
He played 12 times for England, scoring five goals.
4. Joe Royle – 118 goals
Joe Royle was born 8 April 1949. He debuted for Everton at the age of 16, a record he would hold for almost four decades as the youngest debutant. He played for Everton from 1966 to 1974. The top goalscorer at Everton for five seasons, Royle made 270 appearances in total. He retired from playing in 1982.
He moved into management, taking the reins at Oldham Athletic in 1982, then returned to Everton as manager in 1994, guiding the side to FA Cup glory in his first season.
Royle has always been humble about his status. “It’s very nice when people call me a legend, and I’m very proud of it, but I always say the same thing – you better invent a new word for the likes of Roy Vernon, Alex Young, and Alan Ball because they were all far better players than me!”
5. Roy Vernon – 106 goals
Roy Vernon played for Everton from 1960 to 1965. Born in 1937, as a schoolboy he had turned down Everton, preferring instead to sign for Blackburn Rovers. But he emerged as one of the most deadly young goalscorers in English football and was recognised by Wales, travelling to the 1958 World Cup in Sweden.
Alex Young, his fellow forward, recalled, “He developed into a tremendous runner off the ball which suited me down to the ground. Roy loved to make surging runs down the middle, just like Eusebio, and could slip through defences like sand through fingers. He claimed that it takes two to make a pass, one to strike the ball and another to receive it. We honed our inter-passing and reaped the rewards with nets full of goals.”
Vernon and Young’s partnership yielded more than 100 league goals from 1961 to 1964. Vernon topped Everton’s scoring chart in each of his four complete seasons. His finest hour came in 1962‑63 when he captained Everton to the League championship, scoring a hat‑trick against Fulham on the day the title was clinched.
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