Recalling Alan Shearer's iconic Premier League debut and two forgotten stars

For anyone over 30, it's depressing to think that a whole new generation of football fans have grown up never having seen Alan Shearer kick a ball.

Yet even for those who didn't grow up watching Shearer smash goals every week, his name remains synonymous with the Premier League, his record 260 goals hanging with each new challenger to his crown.

The legendary No. 9 is still there in the Match Of The Day studio, having a good time having fun as he is pointed out that Harry Kane is getting closer and closer, or trying not to look smug when clips came out of his many ridiculous lenses. But Shearer knows it, like everyone else; he was - still is - the Premier League's iconic goalscorer.

He has played more than twice as many campaigns in the English top flight as Thierry Henry. Didier Drogba only scored more than 20 goals once; Shearer did it seven times.

The closest challenger, Wayne Rooney, made his competitive debut at the age of 16 and spent 13 seasons in the dominant force at Manchester United, but still missed 52 goals.< /p>

Shearer's record doesn't even count the 23 league goals he scored for Southampton, starting with a hat-trick on his first start as he earned £35 a week as a teenager in 1988, before the advent of the Premier League in 1992.

Coming to the highly publicized rebranding, the striker was 21 and nearing his prime. In February 1992, he made his England debut, scoring the opener of a 2–0 win over France. As Leeds United won the last Premier League title, he enjoyed the best campaign of his fledgling career to date with the Saints, scoring 13 league goals and 21 in all competitions.

It earned a British record transfer of £3.6million to newly promoted Blackburn Rovers, who received considerable backing from local entrepreneur Jack Walker long before Roman Abramovich and Sheikh Mansour arrived on the scene. places to distort the balance.

At the dawn of the competition that defined him, Shearer was already a star, the kind of character who was essential to BSkyB's massive promotional campaign to complete the sport's transformation into a slick television product, subscriber-based and far from the hooliganism that kept it from being a mass product during Thatcher's reign.

That superstar status was reinforced on the very first Saturday of the dawn of the new Premier League as nine non-televised matches took place.

Brian Deane scored the first goal of the new era as Sheffield United stunned Manchester United with a 2-1 victory, champions Leeds began their title defense with a 2-1 win over Wimbledon, and Arsenal squandered a two-goal lead to lose 4-2 at home to Norwich City.

But there was another six-goal thriller; Blackburn's new talisman played a starring role on his competitive debut at Selhurst Park, scoring twice in a 3-3 draw against hosts Crystal Palace.

Shearer scored the first two of his 260 Premier League goals that afternoon, coming out of the traps with two Goal of the Month contenders. Four months prior, The Lightning Seeds released The Life of Riley and you can practically hear his effervescent hook as he crushes them.

These are typical 90s goals, from the quality of the image, to the camera angle, to the angular old nets and the roofless old Holmesdale terrace behind the goal. Not to mention the strikes themselves; they don't hit them like that anymore.

With the former, he was on hand to sweep away a knockdown from attacking partner Mike Newell; a classic maneuver when the 4-4-2 still reigned supreme. Torso before catching it on the half volley, Shearer launched it straight into the throat of Palace Guardian Nigel Martyn, but with enough venom to fly straight.

Bang.

Three minutes earlier, Gareth Southgate had just put the hosts 2-1 up after efforts from Stuart Ripley and Mark Bright midway through the first half.

Shearer's moment of brilliance canceled out his future England teammate's effort, and soon enough an even better strike gave the newcomers the lead.

"Encouraged by this goal, no doubt..." was the line of commentary as Shearer picked up the ball down the left, cutting inside to let John Humphrey drop the chase before using Eric Young as a screen to place a curling ball out of reach of a sprawling Martyn, right into the corner of the net.

A good five yards further than his first strike, which was all about power, his second was pure p...