Who is the Player With Most Hat Tricks in Football?

One of the most tremendous feats in football is scoring a hat-trick. Scoring three goals in a row is called a true hat trick. Scoring three in a game, with a different player scoring one or two in between, is still considered a hat trick. But most football purest will disagree with that.

All in all, there have been a lot of players who have managed to pull a hat trick in their careers. Some of them are better at it when they play for their own club. Others are much more prolific while doing so for the national team.

Today, we are here to answer the question who has the most hat tricks as we highlight some of the most prolific scorers in football history.

Players with the Most Hat Tricks in Football

When it comes to the players who have scored hat-tricks in the 21st century, you can probably guess who the best of them is. We are talking, of course, about Cristiano Ronaldo, who has managed 63 of them in his career.

Ronaldo has played for Manchester United, Real Madrid, Juventus, and now Al-Nassr. Playing in three of the best football leagues in the world and achieving these numbers is not an easy task to perform. Yet, Cristiano remains the supreme leader of goal scoring. And he is not stopping there. At 39 years old, he is still scoring as prolifically as he ever has in the Saudi Pro League.

Second on the list is his rival, Lionel Messi. The pacey Argentinina has managed 57 hat-tricks in his career, mostly by playing for Barcelona. He played only two seasons for PSG. Now at the age of 37 in the MLS, performing for Inter Miami. Nevertheless, he has aged like fine wine and can score a hat trick whenever he wishes.

Third on the list of most career hat tricks is the Maldives national team captain and living legend Ali Ashfaq. He has managed 35 in his career, mostly by playing for teams in his own country. He started his career in 2001 and is still active at the age of 38, proudly representing Club Eagles.

We can’t create a list of players with the most hat tricks in football without mentioning Robert Lewandowski. He has managed 31 in his career by appearing for Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich, and Barcelona. Most of his goal-scoring efforts came in the Bundesliga. One day, when he retires, there are going to be a lot of records that he set in Germany.

Players With Most Hat Tricks for a National Team

Some players are prolific, no matter where you put them. Others get particularly motivated when playing for the national team. One of the latter players is against Cristiano Ronaldo. The guy just loves scoring goals, no matter where he plays.

He has a record number of appearances for Portugal. As such, he has managed the most hat tricks for a national team in history. For now, he has 10 of them. But since he is still playing for Os Navegadores, there is still a chance that he might improve his record.

Behind Ronaldo is a name that most have forgotten. The former Swedish forward Sven Rydell played for the Blågult national team between 1923 and 1932. He made 43 appearances and actually scored 49 goals for the national side. He also became the first player in history to record 9 hat tricks for his home nation.

In second place alongside Rydell is someone that we already mentioned, Lionel Messi. With 9 hat tricks to his name, Messi finally won the World Cup in 2023 with Argentina, crowning his career with the only trophy he was missing.

The third place is occupied by two former footballing legends, Poul Nielsen and Ali Daei. Nielsen appeared for Denmark between 1913 and 1921, scoring 8 hat tricks during that period. He is joined by the former Iranian captain Ali Daei. He finished his playing career in 2004 and retired with 108 international goals for Iran.

Goalkeepers Who Scored Hat Tricks

The rule does not say that you have to be a striker to achieve a hat trick. Goalkeepers are also allowed to score goals, and there have been a few who managed to score three goals in a single game in their careers.

Ilija Pantelic was the first one to achieve it in 1963 while appearing for Vojvodina. He scored all three goals from the penalty spot during a regular game in the Yugoslav First Division League, leading his team to victory against NK Tresnjevka.

The feat was then repeated by one of the best goalscoring goalkeepers that the world has ever seen – José Luis Chilavert. The Paraguayan keeper converted three penalties in 1999 when Velez Sarsfield defeated Ferro Farril Oeste by 6-1.

Finally, and currently, the most recent goalkeeper to bag in a hat-trick was Grigorios Athanasiou. This feat happened in the Greek Fourth Division between Pavlos Melas Stavroupoli and Aetos Vassilikon. The Greek goalie was successful from the spot all three times, leading Pavlos to an easy win.

Defenders With The Most Hat Tricks

Even though the modern style of football sees more and more defenders becoming prolific goalscorers, not a lot of them have been able to score a hat trick. The teams that play in the 3-5-2 formation usually have two wingers that both score and assist. But the accolade for a defending player with most hat tricks goes to two legends, Ronald Koeman and Fernando Hierro.

Koeman was an excellent defender and an even better goal-scorer. He revolutionised his position by becoming one of the most efficient defenders to score goals. The three different occasions that he scored a hat trick on was with three different clubs – Ajax, PSV, and Barcelona.

Fernando Hierro, the former Spanish captain, played for Real Madrid for most of his career. During that period, he became to be known as one of the hardest defenders on the pitch. But during his playing days, he also became a very efficient goalscorer, netting more than 100 goals in his playing career.

He scored two hat tricks in La Liga in 1991 and 2002, and one in the UEFA Cup versus Torpedo Moscow in 1992.

Players with the Most World Cup Hat Tricks

Playing on football’s biggest stage means being a part of a World Cup. Scoring at a World Cup is something that a lot of people dream about, but managing a hat trick means that you are a legend. There are four players in total that have been able to perform this feat twice.

Sandor Kocsis (Hungary) in 1954, Just Fontaine (France) in 1958, and Gerd Müller (Germany) in 1970 all scored a pair of hat tricks during a single tournament. On the other hand, the legendary Gabriel Batistuta was the only one to do it in two separate tournaments. He did so in 1994 against Greece and again in 1998 versus Jamaica.

Players With the Most Hat Tricks in the Premier League

The Premier League has had a plethora of legendary strikers who stood tall in front of goals, banging them in left and right. While Harry Kane is no longer in the Premier League, he left a longstanding mark by scoring 8 hat tricks in his career. Yet, he is not the best in that regard, there are three different players who scored more in front of him.

So, who has the most hat tricks in the Premier League? The answer is staring you right in your face, and it is none other than Sergio Aguero. Kun Aguero has done it 12 times while playing for Manchester City during his 10-year tenure. During that period, he also got 260 times on the score sheet.

Runner up comes Alan Shearer with 11 hat tricks to his name. The former England captain played for Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United in the Premier League. He is a multiple-time best scorer of the EPL and also the all-time best scorer with 260 goals.

Third on the list of Premier League hat tricks is Robbie Fowler. He had nine to his name and scored most of them while playing for Liverpool. Robbie actually ended his career by scoring a hat trick for Perth Glory, showing how deadly in front of goal he actually was.