England women's all-time top goalscorers: Ellen White, Beth Mead, Georgia Stanway & the Lionesses' best finishers

England's Lionesses have always had great goalscorers. Even before the team was the major contender it is now, winning back-to-back European Championships under Sarina Wiegman and reaching a first Women's World Cup final, they could boast some incredible attacking talent, with Arsenal icon Kelly Smith, widely considered the Lionesses' greatest ever player, a prime example.

But Smith's place atop the all-time goalscoring charts for England's women's national team was taken by Ellen White back in November 2021, and now the former Manchester City star, who retired after the Euro 2022 triumph, is the player to beat. She's some 13 goals clear of any current Lioness, but there are several contenders creeping up the ranks to challenge her record.

Beth Mead is the closest and now Georgia Stanway is staking her claim, climbing into ninth in the all-time list thanks to three goals in England's first two games of 2026. Alessia Russo, too, looks a real threat, especially as the Lionesses' starting centre forward. She sits just one goal off the top 10.

So, who are the players that hold the records that Mead, Stanway and Russo are chasing down? How far are they off rising further up the ranks? And which players have scored the most goals for England over the years? GOAL runs through the Lionesses' all-time top goalscorers...

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10. Marieanne Spacey (30 goals)
Before enjoying successful coaching stints in the Lionesses' staff and later with Southampton, Marieanne Spacey was one of the greatest goal-scorers in the history of her national team. Debuting in 1984, Spacey would score 30 goals in 94 appearances, despite playing off the centre forward rather than being the focal point in attack. She's widely considered one of the Lionesses' best players of all time and still ranks among the top 10 for goals scored, with a strike against Scotland at Wembley Stadium, in 1990, one of her most famous.

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9. Georgia Stanway (32 goals)
Georgia Stanway's goalscoring record for England is outstanding, particularly considering she is a midfielder rather than a forward. In 89 appearances, she has 32 goals, with the 20 assists on top of that making her tally of goal contributions incredibly impressive. By netting three in the Lionesses' first two outings of 2026, Stanway climbed into ninth among the team's greatest-ever goalscorers and, still just 27 years old, she could climb a lot higher yet.
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=7. Karen Carney (33 goals)
Another non-striker on this list, Karen Carney spent 14 years sprinkling her individual magic on the international game and she scored 33 goals in that time, the seventh most in the history of the Lionesses. Two of those came in England's incredible Euro 2009 campaign, including one in the defeat to Germany in the final, with another couple coming in her side's run to a first-ever Women's World Cup semi-final in 2015.

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=7. Eniola Aluko (33 goals)
The first proper forward on this list, Eniola Aluko also scored 33 goals in her 13-year England career, albeit in 39 fewer games than Carney. Three of those came at Euro 2009, where Aluko netted a brace in the quarter-final win over hosts Finland, including the match-winner. Those followed a crucial strike in another dramatic 3-2 win earlier in the tournament, against Russia in the group stages.
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6. Beth Mead (39 goals)
No one on this list has a better goals-per-game ratio than Beth Mead, who is averaging a goal every two games for England at this point in her career. The winger's 39 strikes have come in 78 games and six of them came in the Lionesses' Euro 2022 triumph, to secure the tournament's Golden Boot. The 30-year-old could finish her playing career much higher than sixth, too, given the small gaps between her and those above her on this list.
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5. Fara Williams (40 goals)
The Lionesses' most-capped player of all-time, Fara Williams also scored plenty of goals in her 18-year international career. While the most memorable of those was certainly her final one, as her penalty secured a first-ever win over Germany and third place at the 2015 World Cup, that was just one of the remarkable eight she scored at major tournaments. The first came some 10 years earlier, against Denmark at Blackburn Rovers' Ewood Park as England hosted Euro 2005.
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4. Karen Walker (41 goals)
On this list, only Mead has a better goals-per-game ratio than Karen Walker, who began her England career in 1988 and would score 41 times in 86 appearances before retiring from international duty in 2003. Perhaps the most notable of those came at the 1995 Women's World Cup, when Walker gave England a 2-1 lead over Nigeria in a group stage game they would win to secure qualification for the quarter-finals on their tournament debut.
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3. Kerry Davis (43 goals)
With the same impressive average of 0.48 goals per game as Walker, Kerry Davis ranks second on this list after netting 43 times in 90 England appearances. The first black woman to represent the Lionesses, Davis debuted in 1982 and would play in defence and midfield as well as attack, yet she continued to score at a remarkable rate, so much so that she was the team's all-time leading goalscorer until Kelly Smith surpassed her in 2012, some 14 years after Davis' final Lionesses game.
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2. Kelly Smith (46 goals)
Widely considered the Lionesses' greatest ever player, Smith held the record as England's all-time top goalscorer for nine years, after surpassing Davis' tally when she scored against Finland in February 2012. The forward would score two more goals for her country - another in that very game, and one against Scotland a year later - before retiring with 46 to her name.
Smith's most famous goals came in the 2007 Women's World Cup, because of the celebration that followed. Having netted in the Lionesses' opening game against Japan, Smith removed her boot and kissed it, producing an image that would become iconic.
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1. Ellen White (52 goals)
Ellen White became the Lionesses' greatest ever goalscorer in September 2021, when she scored a hat-trick against Latvia. Her first of the night levelled Smith's tally, then her next two sent her to the top of the charts outright. It was a position White would strengthen with four more goals before retiring after England's Euro 2022 triumph, having scored 52 times in 113 games. The striker scored twice that summer and netted 10 in total at major tournaments, including six at the 2019 Women's World Cup to win the Bronze Ball.