The top 8 best Birmingham City strikers of all-time | OneFootball

FLW has looked at the greatest forwards to wear the royal blue in the past 150 years

Birmingham City and their supporters have certainly seen plenty of iconic moments and drama unfold throughout 150 years of history.

Whilst that has continued to be the case in recent times, as the club aim for a return to the Premier League sooner rather than later, supporters of every generation who flock to St. Andrew's @ Knighthead Park will always have fond memories of their favourite players throughout the years.

In recent times, we have seen the likes of Jude Bellingham come through the B9 ranks before going on to shine for Real Madrid and the England national team, and Bluenoses will be hoping there are more who can follow in the midfielder's initial footsteps, but, instead, remain with the club as they move into an exciting new era under the ownership of Knighthead Capital Management.

Tom Wagner's millions have bankrolled a rebuilding job which began last season as Blues romped to the League One title, and now they are hoping to get out of the Championship at the right end sooner rather than later, with the club set to move into the 62,000-seater Powerhouse stadium in the next few years.

At present, Chris Davies has the likes of Marvin Ducksch, Jay Stansfield and August Priske as his main trio of strikers responsible for scoring the goals to help realise such ambitions.

However, Football League World have decided to turn the clock back for a moment, and rank the eight-best Blues strikers of all-time in order.

8 ? ? Che Adams

In eighth place on this list is Scotland international striker and current Torino man, Che Adams, who enjoyed an impressive stint with Blues between 2016 and 2019, in what was a mixed time for the West Midlands side.

After signing from Sheffield United for £2m under Gary Rowett, Adams scored on his first start against Wolverhampton Wanderers in August 2016, and scored just 12 goals in his first two seasons with the club, albeit two of those were in crucial matches against Bristol City and Fulham to ensure survival in 2016/17 and 2017/18 respectively.

However, the Leicester native flourished in what proved to be Garry Monk's only full season in charge at St. Andrew's, as he formed a strong partnership with Lukas Jutkiewicz, netting 22 goals throughout the season, which saw him nominated for the Championship Player of the Year award.

He would then move to Southampton for £15m, where he went on to score 48 times in 191 games. Adams was also heavily linked with a return to Blues in the summer and winter of the current season, but a move failed to materialise.

7 ? ? Bob Hatton

In seventh spot is Hull-born forward, Bob Hatton, who joined Blues from Carlisle United in the 1971/72 season and went on to prove his goalscoring prowess for several years at St. Andrew's.

Hatton immediately became a key part of Freddie Goodwin's side which earned promotion to the First Division alongside homegrown talents in the form of Bob Latchford and Trevor Francis, as Birmingham scored 60 times in 42 matches, averaging 1.935 goals per-game in the process.

Overall, the forward spent the majority of his career in this part of the Second City, scoring 45 times in 158 league appearances, whilst a further 12 came in other competitions.

He then went on to continue his goalscoring form for the likes of Blackpool, Luton Town and Sheffield United.

6 ? ? Peter Murphy

In sixth is Peter Murphy, who was known as 'Spud'. He arrived at St. Andrew's in 1952 after previous spells with Coventry City and Tottenham Hotspur, and it has been said that said transfer was the 'making' of his career.

Murphy couldn't have asked for a better start to life as a Blue, as he scored a hat-trick in a 5-0 rout against Doncaster Rovers, and went on to score 20 times as the club earned promotion to the top-flight in 1954/55.

The forward was also responsible for five goals as Blues reached the 1956 FA Cup final, where he infamously collided with Manchester City goalkeeper, Bert Trautmann, who played the rest of the match with a broken neck.

Overall, the forward scored 127 goals in 278 appearances for the club, and joined the coaching staff upon his retirement.

5 ? ? Lukas Jutkiewicz

Next up is the man on this list who most recently pulled on the royal blue out of the eight selected, and it is none other than modern-day Blues cult hero, Lukas Jutkiewicz.

The 36-year-old initially arrived on loan from Burnley in 2016 under Gary Rowett, but ended up staying at the club in a playing capacity for the next decade, scoring several key important goals in battles against relegation from the Championship, before playing a bit-part role in Blues' record-breaking season in League One in 2024/25.

'The Juke' as he became known, received plenty of plaudits for his work-rate alongside his total of 68 goals in 357 appearances for the club.

Despite retiring, the ex-forward is very much still part of the furniture at St. Andrew's, having taken up the position of First Team Positional Lead Scout ahead of the 2025/26 campaign.

4 ? ? Mikael Forssell

Mikael Forssell has made it into fourth spot on this particular ranking, with the Finnish striker also a cult hero for Bluenoses of a certain generation in what was, as has often been the case throughout history, a mixed period for the club.

The striker initially enjoyed a fine loan spell of 17 goals in 32 appearances as Birmingham finished 10th in the 2003/04 season, although a second loan stint in 2004/05 didn't go as planned as a result of injury.

Regardless, Blues parted with a £3.5m sum to secure his permanent services in the summer of 2005, where he would score a further 17 times, including a memorable hat-trick against Tottenham Hotspur in March 2008, before moving to Hannover 96 after the club were relegated back to the Championship.

His status as a cult hero was showcased in November 2025, when he returned to St. Andrew's as part of Blues' official 150th-anniversary matchday against Norwich City, which ended in a 4-1 win for his former side.

3 ? ? Bob Latchford

In third place is boyhood Bluenose and goalscorer extraordinare, Bob Latchford.

The Kings Heath-born man rose through the ranks at his hometown club before making his senior breakthrough in the 1968/69 campaign, and he would go on to form one part of the dynamic attacking trio with Hatton and Trevor Francis in the promotion-winning season of 1971/72, where he scored 23 times in 42 appearances.

Throughout two seasons with Birmingham in the First Division, Latchford went on to net a further 29 goals, before moving to Everton for a then British-record fee of just £350,000. He then scored a further 138 goals in 289 outings for the Toffees in a seven-year stint at Goodison Park.

2 ? ? Joe Bradford

Taking up the runners-up position on this list is Birmingham's all-time record goalscorer, Joe Bradford.

Nicknamed 'Gentleman Joe', the striker is very much unlikely to be beaten when it comes to his remarkable tally of 267 goals in 445 appearances for the club between 1920 and 1935.

Bradford ended up as Blues' top scorer for 12 seasons in a row, which included a strike in the 1931 FA Cup final defeat to local rivals, West Bromwich Albion.

Despite his phenomenal scoring form, he would only end up with 12 England caps to his name, scoring seven times for the Three Lions in the process, including on his debut in 1923 against Ireland.

1 ? ? Trevor Francis

However, the man at the top of this list is Trevor Francis, who, to this day, is seen as the greatest-ever Birmingham City player.

The forward scored 133 times in 269 appearances for the Midlands side, which included a quadruple of strikes on his debut against Bolton Wanderers as a 16-year-old in 1971.

After netting 15 goals in his first 15 senior appearances for Blues, Francis' 12 strikes were key in the aforementioned 1972 promotion, before nearly seven further years as a top-flight performer for the club were also completed in remarkable fashion.

This included the 1976/77 and 1977/78 campaigns, when Francis married his first England call-ups with a record of 46 goals in 84 league appearances.

He would then depart in well-documented fashion for Nottingham Forest in February 1979, becoming English football's first-ever £1m-rated player, before scoring in the European Cup final for the Reds just months later.