A Brief History of FIFA World Cup Hat Trick Heroes

Scoring a hat trick is a special achievement for any football (soccer) player, and doing so for one’s country at a World Cup is the pinnacle of individual achievement. From American Bert Patenaude scoring the first World Cup hat trick in 1930 to Argentina’s Lionel Messi becoming the oldest player to score three goals in the 2026 tournament, each hat trick holds special meaning for players and supporters. Messi found the net thrice against Algeria in his team’s opening match at the 2026 FIFA World Cup on June 16, tying Germany’s Miroslav Klose tally of 16 World Cup goals, then a record, and also becoming the oldest player to score a World Cup hat trick. He later surpassed Klose’s total, as did France’s Kylian Mbappé. Messi’s compatriot Gabriel Batistuta is the only player to score a hat trick in two separate World Cups (1994 and 1998). Mbappé (2022) and England’s Geoff Hurst (1966) are also notably the only players to score a hat trick in a World Cup final. Here are the memorable hat trick scorers in the history of the men’s tournament.

Two good to be true

Only four players have scored more than one World Cup hat trick.

Sándor Kocsis, Hungary (1954): Kocsis scored three goals in Hungary’s 9–0 win over South Korea and four more in Hungary’s 8–3 win over West Germany. His two hat tricks came in consecutive World Cup matches, a distinction he shares with West Germany’s Gerd Müller. Kocsis finished the 1954 tournament with 11 goals, and Hungary reached the final before losing 3–2 to West Germany.

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Just Fontaine, France (1958): Fontaine scored three goals in a 7–3 win over Paraguay and four goals in a 6–3 win over West Germany in the third-place match. He finished the 1958 World Cup with 13 goals in six games, which remains the individual goal-scoring record in a single men’s tournament. France finished third in the tournament.

Gerd Müller, West Germany (1970): Müller scored hat tricks in back-to-back wins, first in a 5–2 victory over Bulgaria and then in a 3–1 win over Peru. He finished the tournament with 10 goals in six games as West Germany placed third, and he also scored the winning goal in the 1974 World Cup final.

Gabriel Batistuta, Argentina (1994 and 1998): Batistuta scored three goals in Argentina’s 4–0 win over Greece in 1994 and another three in Argentina’s 5–0 win over Jamaica in 1998. He remains the only player to score World Cup hat tricks in two different editions. Coincidentally, both hat tricks were scored on June 21, both were against World Cup debutants, and both were completed through penalty kicks.

One hat trick wonders

Bert Patenaude, United States (1930): Patenaude scored all three goals in the United States’ 3–0 win over Paraguay at the first World Cup. Because of conflicting match records, FIFA only officially acknowledged his hat trick as the earliest in World Cup history in 2006, after decades of review.

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Ernst Wilimowski, Poland (1938): He scored four goals against Brazil, but his team lost 6–5 after extra time. Wilimowski became the first hat trick scorer for a losing team in the tournament’s history.

Pelé, Brazil (1958): Pelé scored three goals in Brazil’s 5–2 semifinal win over France, achieving the feat when he was 17 years 244 days old. He remains the youngest men’s World Cup hat trick scorer. Brazil went on to win its first World Cup, with Pelé scoring a double in the final against Sweden.

Eusébio, Portugal (1966): Eusébio scored four goals as his team came from 3–0 down to beat North Korea 5–3 in the quarterfinals. Portugal finished third at the tournament; Eusébio was the top scorer at the 1966 World Cup, with nine goals.

Geoff Hurst, England (1966): He was the first player to score a hat trick in a men’s World Cup final in a 4–2 extra-time win over West Germany, handing England its only World Cup title.

László Kiss, Hungary (1982): He scored the fastest men’s World Cup hat trick, netting three goals in seven minutes, and is also the only substitute player to achieve the feat. Kiss’s hat trick came during a 10–1 win against El Salvador, the only double-digit score in the tournament’s history.

Paolo Rossi, Italy (1982): Rossi scored all three goals in his team’s 3–2 win over Brazil in the second group stage. The Italian forward was the top goal scorer in the tournament and helped his team win the World Cup.

Oleg Salenko, Russia (1994): He is the only player to score five goals in a World Cup match, doing so in Russia’s 6–1 win over Cameroon. Ironically, Salenko’s stellar performance came in the last international match of his career, as he was never chosen to play for Russia again. He finished the tournament with six goals and shared the top-scorer award with Bulgaria’s Hristo Stoichkov.

Miroslav Klose, Germany (2002): Klose scored a hat trick of headers in Germany’s 8–0 win over Saudi Arabia in his World Cup debut. He later became the men’s World Cup leading scorer at the time with 16 goals, a record that was equaled and surpassed by Messi and Mbappé in 2026.

Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal (2018): Ronaldo scored all three of his team’s goals in a 3–3 group-stage draw with Spain, completing the hat trick with an 88th-minute free kick.

Harry Kane, England (2018): Kane scored three goals in England’s 6–1 win over Panama, later becoming the 2018 World Cup Golden Boot winner, with six goals in the tournament.

Kylian Mbappé, France (2022): He became only the second player to score a hat trick in a World Cup final. France lost the final on penalties to Argentina after a 3–3 draw, Mbappé won the tournament’s Golden Boot award, with eight goals.

Lionel Messi, Argentina (2026): Messi scored his first World Cup hat trick in a 3–0 win over Algeria on June 16. He became the oldest World Cup hat trick scorer, at 38 years 357 days, and equaled Klose’s World Cup record of 16 goals. He overtook Klose in a subsequent match.

A record of all World Cup hat trick scorers, listed chronologically, can be found in the table below.