No player has scored more Community Shield goals than Eric Cantona, whose tally of five stretches across three different finals and two different clubs. That record has stood for close to three decades despite the competition attracting some of the biggest names in English football every August.
Anyone checking the Arsenal vs Man City Odds for this year’s curtain-raiser is watching a fixture with a long history of producing standout individual performances.
Given how rarely a player gets the chance to feature in this fixture more than once or twice in a career, reaching multiple goals at all is a notable achievement. Here are the five players who have scored the most, the games they did it in, and how their form held up once the season proper got underway.
One name from the Shield’s early years
The Charity Shield ran in a very different form for its first six decades, with the FA at one point selecting teams of amateurs and professionals rather than inviting two clubs. The list below covers the modern era of the competition, from 1974 onwards, when the match moved to Wembley and settled into its place as the curtain-raiser to the season.
One player from those earlier years still stands above everyone on it. Harold Halse scored six goals in the 1911 Shield, all of them in Manchester United’s 8-4 win over Swindon Town, a result that remains the highest scoring match in the history of the fixture.
Eric Cantona, five goals
Cantona remains the only player to score a hat-trick in the competition, netting three times for Leeds United in a 4-3 win over Liverpool in 1992. He added another for Manchester United against Blackburn Rovers in 1994, then a fifth in the 4-0 win over Newcastle United in 1996.
That final goal came in what turned out to be his last season at Old Trafford, one in which his league form dipped slightly from the heights of the previous campaign before his retirement the following May.
Nani, three goals
Nani scored for Manchester United in a losing effort against Chelsea in 2009, then returned two years later to score twice against local rivals Manchester City, including a stoppage time winner in a 3-2 comeback. He carried that form into the following league season, scoring on his first appearance of the campaign in a record 8-2 win over Arsenal, though United would go on to lose the title to City on goal difference that May.
Didier Drogba, two goals
Drogba scored both goals in Chelsea’s 2-1 win over Arsenal in 2005, setting the tone for a season in which the club retained the Premier League title. For those tracking football bet markets around season-opening form, Drogba’s Shield performance proved a fair reflection of what followed, as he went on to score 12 league goals that campaign while Chelsea became only the second team to win back-to-back titles in the Premier League era.
Mark Hughes, two goals
Hughes scored in two separate Shield finals decided by penalty shootouts, first helping Manchester United beat Arsenal in 1993, then later finishing on the losing side for Chelsea against his old club in 1997. Both appearances came during productive spells in his career, with Hughes remaining a regular first team goalscorer for whichever side he represented at the time, long before his later career in management.
Gilberto Silva, two goals
Unlike the strikers above him on this list, Gilberto Silva built his reputation as a defensive midfielder rather than a goalscorer, which makes his two Shield goals stand out. He scored the winner against Liverpool in 2002 and again in Arsenal’s 3-1 win over Manchester United in 2004, though goals remained a rare occurrence for him in league football either side of those appearances.
Between them, these five players show that scoring more than once in the Community Shield takes a mixture of longevity, opportunity and a knack for turning up on the big occasion.