From Viv Anderson to Max Dowman: The first player born in each year to score in the Premier League

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This is because Max Dowman entered the world on December 31, 2009 and 16 years and 73 days later, playing for Arsenal against Everton on March 14, 2026, ran more than three-quarters of the pitch before sliding the ball into an empty net to earn this coveted distinction. Dowman’s goal also means the Premier League, which began in August 1992, has now had a scorer born in every year of the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s (the 1950s becomes the only incomplete decade and, despite notable recent advancements in sports science, is likely to remain so). So, The Athletic explores the first player born in each year to have scored in the competition: from Viv Anderson in 1956 to Dowman in 2009, and the 52 individuals in between. 1956: Viv Anderson for Sheffield Wednesday vs Tottenham Hotspur on September 27, 1992 1957: John Wark for Ipswich Town vs Tottenham Hotspur on August 30, 1992 1958: Gordon Cowans for Blackburn Rovers vs Norwich City on October 3, 1992 1959: Lee Chapman for Leeds United vs Wimbledon on August 15, 1992 Players born in nine different years scored on the first day of the Premier League on August 15, 1992, with 1959 the earliest of them. Leeds’ Lee Chapman and Chelsea’s Mick Harford were the men born in that year who found the net, with the former’s close-range finish against Wimbledon coming earlier in the day. Less than two months later and the exclusive 1950s club had three more years: 1956, 1957 and 1958. Gordon Cowans’ goal, the first by anyone born in 1958, was the only time he netted in the competition — a distinction he shares with seven other players on this list. Since then, nobody born in any of the other six years of the decade has found the net: leaving 1956 as the earliest to provide a Premier League scorer thanks to Sheffield Wednesday’s Anderson, who was born on July 29. That goal Anderson scored against Tottenham in September 1992 does not make him the earliest-born player to have ever netted in the Premier League. That honour belongs to Kevin Moran, who was born exactly three months before Anderson on April 29, 1956. The Blackburn Rovers defender’s first strike in the competition, though, came in the November of that maiden season — eight weeks after Anderson had scored. As for the player with the earliest date of birth to have appeared in the Premier League, that title is held by John Burridge — who was born on December 3, 1951. This makes the former Manchester City goalkeeper the only one of the 5,107 men (and counting) to have played in the Premier League who wasn’t born during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II — something that will remain true until at least the late 2030s. 1960: Graeme Sharp for Oldham Athletic vs Crystal Palace on August 19, 1992 1961: Peter Beardsley for Everton vs Manchester United on August 19, 1992 1962: Steve Bould for Arsenal vs Norwich City on August 15, 1992 1963: Nigel Pearson for Sheffield Wednesday vs Everton on August 15, 1992 1964: Paul Wilkinson for Middlesbrough vs Coventry City on August 15, 1992 1965: Eddie McGoldrick for Crystal Palace vs Oldham Athletic on August 19, 1992 1966: Teddy Sheringham for Nottingham Forest vs Liverpool on August 16, 1992 1967: Stuart Ripley for Blackburn Rovers vs Crystal Palace on August 15, 1992 1968: Brian Deane for Sheffield United vs Manchester United on August 15, 1992 1969: Mark Robins for Norwich City vs Arsenal on August 15, 1992 A player born in every year of the 1960s had scored in the competition just five days after its inception — starting with 1968’s Brian Deane who netted the first Premier League goal at five minutes past three on Saturday, August 15, 1992 and culminating with 1961’s Peter Beardsley the following Wednesday. Both goals came against Manchester United. The goal on August 16 that saw Teddy Sheringham become the first player born in 1966 to score in the Premier League was also the first in the new competition to be shown on live television. Meanwhile, Nigel Pearson’s strike on the opening day for the 1963 cohort was the only time he ever scored in the Premier League. The next birth year on this list that this is true of is 1994. 1970: Gavin Johnson for Ipswich Town vs Aston Villa on August 15, 1992 1971: Eddie Newton for Chelsea vs Sheffield Wednesday on August 22, 1992 1972: Simon Osborn for Crystal Palace vs Blackburn Rovers on August 15, 1992 1973: Ray Parlour for Arsenal vs Sheffield Wednesday on August 29, 1992 1974: Chris Bart-Williams for Sheffield Wednesday vs Coventry City on September 2, 1992 1975: Andy Turner for Tottenham Hotspur vs Everton on September 5, 1992 1976: Dani for West Ham United vs Tottenham Hotspur on February 12, 1996  1977: Jason Euell for Wimbledon vs Southampton on October 28, 1995 1978: Emile Heskey for Leicester City vs Southampton on August 21, 1996 1979: Michael Owen for Liverpool vs Wimbledon on May 6, 1997 The last four years of the 1950s, all of the 1960s and the first six years of the 1970s (up to and including 1975) were all completed within the first seven weeks of the inaugural 1992-93 season, but it then took almost three and half years for the first player born in 1976 to find the net — with West Ham’s Portuguese attacking midfielder Dani finally ending the wait in February 1996. Not only is this gap the longest between adjacent years on the list, but Jason Euell had got 1977 on the scoresheet before anyone from 1976 had done so. The only two birth years since to suffer this ignominy are 1983 (pipped by 1984) and 1999 (pipped by 2000). Maybe there was something in the water in 1976 though, as The Athletic’s Michael Cox discovered last year that no man born in that year ever played for the England national team; the only year in the 20th century that this is true of. Looking back a few years, Alan Shearer — who was born in 1970 — scored on the opening day of the competition’s first season, but Gavin Johnson’s strike for Ipswich came earlier in the afternoon. Shearer struggled to recover from this bitter disappointment and went on to achieve little of note in the Premier League. Meanwhile, 1972-born Simon Osborn’s goal is both the last on this list (by birth year) to have been scored on the Premier League’s first day and the last not by a teenager (the Crystal Palace midfielder was 20 at the time). 1980: Jonathan Woodgate for Leeds United vs Sheffield Wednesday on November 8, 1998 1981: Mikael Forssell for Chelsea vs Nottingham Forest on February 20, 1999 1982: Kevin Nolan for Bolton Wanderers vs Leicester City on August 18, 2001 1983: Carlton Cole for Chelsea vs Middlesbrough on April 27, 2002 1984: Darren Bent for Ipswich Town vs Middlesbrough on April 24, 2002 1985: Wayne Rooney for Everton vs Arsenal on October 19, 2002 1986: James Milner for Leeds United vs Sunderland on December 26, 2002 1987: Cesc Fabregas for Arsenal vs Blackburn Rovers on August 25, 2004 1988: James Vaughan for Everton vs Crystal Palace on April 10, 2005 1989: Gareth Bale for Tottenham Hotspur vs Fulham on September 1, 2007 James Vaughan may have lost his title as the youngest Premier League scorer to Dowman, but he will always be the first player born in 1988 to have netted in the competition — doing so in April 2005. Then in September 2007, close to two-and-a-half years after Vaughan’s goal, 1989-born Gareth Bale’s side-footed finish for Tottenham against Fulham completed the 1980s — with this gap the longest between the penultimate and final year of any decade on this list. Bale’s goal also made him the first player to score in the Premier League who was born after the invention of the World Wide Web. Looking back earlier in the 1980s, a whopping four years were ticked off in 2002 (the most excluding 1992) — 1983’s Carlton Cole, 1984’s Darren Bent, 1985’s Wayne Rooney and 1986’s James Milner. Milner, whose goal is the only one on this list to be scored on Boxing Day, would go on to achieve a slightly more notable milestone a little more than 23 years later. As mentioned, Bent got 1984 on the scoresheet before Cole had done so for 1983; with the Ipswich striker netting three days before his Chelsea counterpart — the shortest gap in time between years being ticked off (excluding goals in 1992). Both goals came against Middlesbrough. 1990: Rafael for Manchester United vs Arsenal on November 8, 2008 1991: Federico Macheda for Manchester United vs Aston Villa on April 5, 2009 1992: Jack Wilshere for Bolton Wanderers vs West Ham United on March 6, 2010 1993: Connor Wickham for Sunderland vs Aston Villa on October 29, 2011 1994: Nick Powell for Manchester United vs Wigan Athletic on September 15, 2012 1995: Serge Gnabry for Arsenal vs Swansea City on September 28, 2013 1996: Dele Alli for Tottenham Hotspur vs Leicester City on August 22, 2015 1997: Marcus Rashford for Manchester United vs Arsenal on February 28, 2016 1998: Tom Davies for Everton vs Manchester City on January 15, 2017 1999: Domingos Quina for Watford vs Cardiff City on December 15, 2018 Connor Wickham’s goal for Sunderland against Aston Villa on October 29, 2011 not only made him the first player born in 1993 to score in the Premier League, it also made him the first person born after the competition started to score in it. Fast-forward to this season, and just 13 of the 258 players to have scored were born before the Premier League got underway — Milner, Idrissa Gueye, Jordan Henderson, Danny Welbeck, Tom Cairney, Raul Jimenez, Pascal Gross, Virgil van Dijk, Chris Wood, Joel Veltman, Casemiro, Callum Wilson and Mohamed Salah. Jack Wilshere, who got 1992 on the board, was born on New Year’s Day — so not only did he have a head-start on his peers from that year but he was also alive and kicking before the competition’s launch; thus paving the way for Wickham to be the trailblazer. Wickham was not the first player born after the Premier League started to appear in it though, with this mark belonging to the German Lennard Sowah; who debuted in April 2010 for Portsmouth. Sowah, who was born on August 23, 1992, failed to find the net in all five of his matches in the English top flight (though he did play as a defender). Of the 10 men above, Nick Powell (born 1994), Serge Gnabry (1995) and Domingos Quina (1999) have only scored once in the Premier League. The 1990s were completed when Quina found the net for Watford in December 2018, more than 10 years after 1990-born Rafael had got the decade on the scoresheet — the biggest gap between the start and completion of a decade when it comes to this particular exercise. So much so that by this point, the 2000s had already entered the room. 2000: Ryan Sessegnon for Fulham vs Cardiff City on October 20, 2018 2001: Mason Greenwood for Manchester United vs Sheffield United on November 24, 2019 2002: Fabio Silva for Wolverhampton Wanderers vs Burnley on December 21, 2020 2003: Daniel Jebbison for Sheffield United vs Everton on May 16, 2021 2004: Romeo Lavia for Southampton vs Chelsea on August 30, 2022 2005: Jack Hinshelwood for Brighton & Hove Albion vs Brentford on December 6, 2023 2006: Lewis Miley for Newcastle United vs Fulham on December 16, 2023 2007: Ethan Nwaneri for Arsenal vs Nottingham Forest on November 23, 2024 2008: Rio Ngumoha for Liverpool vs Newcastle United on August 25, 2025 2009: Max Dowman for Arsenal vs Everton on March 14, 2026 Ryan Sessegnon’s goal for Fulham in October 2018 got the dates of birth of Premier League scorers into the 2000s and it would be another eight weeks before Quina closed out the 1990s. Both goals came against Cardiff City. The 2000s have been rattled off in under seven and a half years, far quicker than both the 1980s and 1990s — with 2008’s Rio Ngumoha the first player born after the release of the iPhone to score in the competition and Dowman the first after Bitcoin began being used as a currency. Romeo Lavia (born in 2004) joins Ngumoha and Dowman in having only scored one Premier League goal. The latter was born a few hours too early to be the first player born in the 2010s to score in the Premier League, but it is just a matter of time now before that decade opens its account in the all-time Premier League scorebook. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Will Jeanes is a senior editor at The Athletic. Follow Will on Twitter @will_jeanes