Few players who have played in the FIFA World Cup have scored hat-tricks in it. Only 54 hat-tricks have been scored in the FIFA World Cup since it began in 1930. The number of players who have scored these hat-tricks is even fewer, as some players have scored multiple hat-tricks in the FIFA World Cup. These are a few of the great hat-tricks scored in the FIFA World Cup.
Perhaps the most famous hat-trick in the history of the FIFA World Cup is that of Hurst, who scored in the 1966 World Cup final. It has been debated whether it was truly one of the great hat-tricks, as the second goal has remained disputed. Hurt’s second hit the crossbar, bounced down towards the goal line, and then bounced out, away from the goal, and it was not entirely clear whether the ball crossed the line. Yet, the referee gave it, and Hurst sealed England’s victory with a decisive fourth goal. “They think it’s all over… it is now,” is a famous quote from the match commentary when Hurst scored. Mbappé scored a second final hat-trick, but Hurst’s will always be the historic first World Cup final hat-trick.
Pele is one of the great soccer players, and his hat-trick in the 1958 FIFA World Cup was one of his finest games. In the semi-final, Brazil played France, and Pele’s second-half hat-trick ensured Brazil’s 5-2 victory and their place in the FIFA World Cup final. Pele also set a record for the youngest player to score a hat-trick in the FIFA World Cup.
Fontaine was another great player in the 1958 World Cup and set new goal-scoring records in the FIFA World Cup. This was partly thanks to the third-place play-off game against West Germany. Fontaine scored a hat-trick and an extra goal on top for a total of four in this game. Combined with all Fontaine’s other goals in this FIFA World Cup, this hat-trick took Fontaine’s total up to 13, a record number of goals scored in a single World Cup.
In the first round of USA 94, Russia played Cameroon and won by a landslide 6-1 score line. This victory was mainly thanks to Oleg Salenko. During this game, Salenko scored and scored again, not only to secure a great hat-trick but also to set a new World Cup scoring record. Salenko scored five goals in this game, a record number of goals scored by a player in a single FIFA World Cup game. These five goals also won Salenko the Golden Boot as he scored a sixth goal in another group game. However, Russia did not reach the second round.
Mbappé became only the second player in soccer history to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final. France trailed Argentina 2-0 into the last 10 minutes of the epic 2022 World Cup final until the referee gave a penalty to the French. Mbappé stepped up to score from the spot and then scored a second goal very quickly after to equalize for France and take the game to extra time. Then, Mbappé saved the French again by putting another penalty in the net late into extra time to seal his hat-trick and make the score 3-3. His three goals were not enough to win the final for France as Argentina won the penalty shoot-out and lifted the World Cup trophy.
Those are five great hat-tricks scored in the FIFA World Cup. These hat-tricks from Hurst, Pelé, Salenko, Mbappé, and Fontaine set new World Cup records. We can only hope there’ll be some more great hat-tricks like those in the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
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