Soccer is greatest game ever! and hat-tricks is a greatest achievement of a soccer player.
And how about the greatest moments of soccer’s one of the most intriguing international tournaments – the FIFA World Cup! It has seen many outstanding moments by the participants on the pitch.
One of the most interesting facts about this tournament is that it has seen 52 hat-tricks in 21 tournaments held so far, from players of over 15 countries.
The highest number of hat-tricks is in Germany’s bag with 7 (including West Germany), while this glory is followed closely by Hungary and Argentina with 4 each.
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First hat-trick in Soccer World Cup
This is something most people don’t know. The first hat-trick scored in the FIFA World Cup is by an United States football player by the name of Bert Patenaude, against Paraguay in the 1930′s event.
Fastest hat-trick in Soccer World Cup
The fastest back-to-back hat-trick is still in the possession of Laszlo Kiss of Hungary, who scored three goals back-to-back in 7 minutes (69, 72 and 76 minutes respectively) in the 1982 World Cup first round against El Salvador.
Watch Lazlo Kiss in action:
Highest number of Hat-tricks by a player in single World Cup
The highest number of hat-tricks scored by players in a single World Cup event is 2.
The record is jointly held by –
- Hungary’s Sándor Kocsis (2 – 1954 Switzerland World Cup),
- French legend Just Fontaine (2 – 1958 Sweden World Cup) and
- West Germany’s bomb-machine Gerd Müller (2 – 1970 Mexico World Cup).
Apart from these three, only Gabriel Batistuta of Argentina has scored 2 hat-tricks in World Cup. But Gabriel’s two hat-tricks came from two different World Cups (1994 USA and 1998 France World Cup)
Highest number of hat-tricks scored in a single tournament
The highest number of hat-tricks one single world cup tournament has witnessed is eight (8) in the 1954 World Cup held in Switzerland, all of which were scored by 8 different players from eight different countries.
Highest number of goals scored by player in a game
As soccer game is so fast paced, for players hat-trick doesn’t stop at three goals.
There are many players in the history of Soccer World Cup where players have scored more than 3 goals in a match.
Highest number of goals in a World Cup game is scored by Oleg Salenko of Russia against Cameroon in 1994 USA World Cup. He scored 5 goals.
He is followed by 6 players who have scored 4 goals each in a World Cup game – Ernst Wilimowski (Polland), Emilio Butragueño (Spain), Eusébio (Portugal), Ademir (Brazil), Just Fontaine (West Germany) and Sándor Kocsis (West Germany).
Hearth-throb hat-trick of World Cup
The hat-trick which can be considered most crucial was scored by Brazil’s legendary striker Pele in the 1958 World Cup against France in the 1958 World Cup semi-finals. Brazil won the match 5-2.
Surprise !
Brazilian sensation Cristiano Ronaldo, who runner-up in scoring record number of goals in World Cup career (15) has never scored a hat-trick until last World Cup of 2018. He scored his first and only Hat-trick in 2018 World Cup in Russia against Spain. This was a first Hat-trick of 2018 World Cup. The other Hat-trick of 2018 came form Harry Cane of England who scored the Hat-trick against Panama.
The highest goal scorer – Miroslav Klose (16) has scored 1 hat-trick in 2002 World Cup against Saudi Arabia.