For some, at least, scoring a hat-trick is an extremely difficult feat. Some of the best strikers in the beautiful game never score three goals in a single game during their careers. On the other hand, some players appear to know how to score hat-tricks with ease.
Consider the renowned Portuguese player Cristiano Ronaldo, who has made scoring hat-tricks seem effortless during his remarkable career. He is currently in his late 30s and plays outside of Europe, although he has brought the match ball home on several times since making his professional debut.
How does his hat-trick record stack up against other players in the twenty-first century, even though he is undoubtedly one of the most clinical attackers in football history? This list, which includes a number of contemporary luminaries, will walk you through the 21 players who have scored three goals in a single game the most often since 2000.
The players are ranked according to the number of games in which they achieved hat-tricks in the event of a tiebreak. The winner is the player who reached the total in the fewest games.
Since 2000, the football players with the most hat-tricks
Rank
The player
The quantity of hat-tricks
Total Number of Appearances (Country and Club)
One
Ronaldo Cristiano
66
1263
2.
Lionel Messi
59
1083
3.
Ashfaq Ali
35
617
4.
Lewandowski, Robert
33
961
5.
Suarez Luis
30
949
6.
Mabkhout, Ali
27
486
7.
The Zahovaiko Vyacheslav
26
409.
8.
Kane, Harry
26
693
9.
Haaland, Erling
25
355
10.
Williams, Marc Lloyd
24
576
11.
Duric Aleksandar
22
653
Twelve
Hamdallah, Abderrazak
22
398
13.
Tagliabue, Sebastian
21
420
14
Neymar
21
724
15.
Draper, Greg
20
371
16
Al-Khatib Firas
20
507
17
Ibrahimovic, Zlatan
20
949
18
Mbappe Kylian
20
507
19.
Mario Gomez
18
686
20
Huntelaar Klaas-Jan
18
736
21
Aguero Sergio
18
786
21 Argentina’s Sergio Aguero has 18 hat-tricks.
The Argentine forward’s inclusion on this list is not surprising given that he was the talisman at Manchester City and Atletico Madrid, where he had a strong combination with Diego Forlan. In addition, he is among the select few players who have ever scored five goals in a single game, something he accomplished against Newcastle United in the Premier League.
At his peak, Sergio Aguero was virtually unstoppable. The diminutive attacker could score with either foot or head. Due to a heart problem, he had to retire from football at the age of 33 after playing 786 games for both club and nation. If he had been allowed to continue playing, he had every opportunity to score further hat-tricks.
18 hat-tricks and 20 Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (Holland)
With 18 hat-tricks to his credit during his lengthy and illustrious career, the Dutch forward was regarded as a clinical goalscorer. Prior to playing for teams like Ajax, Real Madrid, Milan, and Schalke, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar began his career with PSV. At the club level, he scored 367 goals, 158 for Ajax and 128 for Schalke. In 76 matches for his nation, he also scored 42 goals.
Throughout his lengthy career, Huntelaar consistently scored goals, as seen by his 18 club and national trebles. As one of the top finishers of his generation, he is rightfully placed in some exceptional company.
19 Germany’s Mario Gomez has 18 hat-tricks.
Mario Gomez was a striker who was quite similar to Huntelaar, as evidenced by the fact that the two scored the same number of hat-tricks throughout their respective games. When he was leading the line for Bayern Munich, the German scored 113 goals in 174 appearances, displaying his most lethal form.
Leading the line when they placed third in the 2010 World Cup, he was as clinical for his country’s squad. The striker missed out on the roster for the tournament in Brazil, so the 2014 victory came just too late. Following a stint with Fiorentina in Italy, Gomez played his final years at Stuttgart.
18 France’s Kylian Mbappe (20 hat-tricks)
Kylian Mbappe, the star striker for Real Madrid and France, is among the most deadly forwards of the contemporary era. Given the rate at which he appears to bulge the net, it is not impossible that the 26-year-old, who is still a relative rookie, will eventually rise up the ranks and overtake those on the podium.
In February 2025, when Los Blancos defeated Man City 3-1, the young Frenchman scored his first hat-trick for Real Madrid and his 20th overall. It would be foolish to wager on the Frenchman’s rapid ascent up this ranking, now that he is aiming straight for the Spanish powerhouses.
17. 20 hat-tricks for Zlatan Ibrahimovic of Sweden
One of the most remarkable strikers of his generation is Zlatan Ibrahimovic, a huge Swede who is tough to handle both technically and physically. After scoring a tonne of goals for teams like Manchester United, AC Milan, Barcelona, and Inter Milan, he didn’t declare his retirement until 2023.
From left-footed screamers to bicycle kicks, the Swedish forward was a revelation who scored a wide variety of goals thanks to his versatility. Ibrahimovic deserves to be on this list since he is among the best goal scorers of the twenty-first century.
16Firas Al-Khatib (Syria)
20 hat-tricks
In addition to playing for several clubs in Kuwait, the Syrian also briefly played in China and Iraq. This implies that while the football’s quality may once more be questioned, scoring 20 hat-tricks is still a noteworthy achievement.
Al-Khatib is the only player from these leagues to make this list, demonstrating his exceptional performance. In addition to playing for Syria at the senior level and being the nation’s record goalscorer (36 goals in 72 games), he won cups and leagues with Al-Arabi, Al-Qadsia, and Kuwait SC over the course of a 20-year career.
15 New Zealander Greg Draper (20 hat-tricks)
His 150th league start and another hat-trick.
Congratulations, Greg Draper.
Images: Brian Jones. pic.twitter.com/icAtxuweSu— The New Saints FC (@tnsfc) December 3, 2020
One may argue that Greg Draper, a lesser-known figure among the greatest in the world, was playing against inferior opponents during his career when playing for The New Saints in Wales. The striker did score 163 goals in the league from 252 games, which is an outstanding record by anyone’s standards, regardless of how you feel about the teams he played.
He has more hat-tricks than Aguero, Gomez, and Huntelaar, which demonstrates his clinical temperament and is a good statistic to be able to share with his children. He will always be remembered by the club’s supporters, and we have no doubt that he would prefer it that way.
14 Brazil’s Neymar scored 21 hat-tricks.
The fact that the Brazilian star is ranked so highly may surprise some people because, despite playing most of his games as a left-winger, he is the first name on the list that is not a striker. In his younger years in Brazil, he did occasionally play as a striker, which led to his major move to Barcelona. In addition to being a tremendously impressive player to watch, Neymar undoubtedly provides a substantial number of goals.
One of the best players in Brazil’s history has returned to Santos, which may lead to even more hat-tricks in the future because the division’s football standards are lower than those of Europe’s top divisions.
13Sebastian Tagliabue (UAE)
21 hat-tricks
The forward, who was born in Argentina, has played in South America and the Middle East. Tagliabue scored 152 goals in 157 UAE Pro League games between 2013 and 2020 during his most productive spell at Al-Wahda in Abu Dhabi.
The striker played for teams like Al-Ettifaq and Al-Shabab and scored five goals during his 19 appearances for the United Arab Emirates. Despite the amount of competition he faced, the striker’s achievement of having the same number of trebles as Neymar is impressive.
12 Morocco’s Abderrazak Hamdallah scored 22 hat-tricks.
The Moroccan joined the Saudi Pro League in 2018 and has since scored well over 100 goals. Along with playing in his home country of Morocco, Abderrazak Hamdallah also had success during his time in Norway and Qatar, as he has scored more hat-tricks than Ibrahimovic despite being nearly ten years younger.
When you consider the company he is maintaining on this list, it is very impressive. With a record like this, it is undeniable that Hamdallah was clinical in front of goal, even if many fans will not have witnessed him play.
11 Singapore’s Aleksandar Duric has 22 hat-tricks.
The deadly striker, who played for 18 clubs during his career, retired at the age of 49 in 2019, completing nearly three decades of play. His 22 hat-tricks demonstrate his skill and goal-scoring abilities during his lengthy playing career.
Since he had more time to get the hat-tricks than his peers, playing for such a long time probably strengthened his case. Football success isn’t usually correlated with longevity, but we applaud Aleksandar Duric for making the most of his playing years by scoring hat-tricks.
10. Wales’s Marc Lloyd Williams has 24 hat-tricks.
The Welsh forward played in both the top flight of his native country and the lesser leagues of England during his career. He scored 345 goals in 576 games during his career, including 24 hat-tricks. After a stellar stint at Bangor City, where he scored 68 goals in 55 games, Marc Lloyd Williams has now been retired for nearly ten years.
Williams scored 47 goals for Bangor City in the 2001–02 season, which made him the highest scorer in Europe. However, because the Welsh Premier League had a lower coefficient, he was not awarded the European Golden Boot for his outstanding play.
9 hat-tricks from Erling Haaland (Norway)
The fact that a twenty-four-year-old has more hat-tricks in his career than some of the best strikers of this century is plain absurd. It is possible that Erling Haaland will end up with three times as many career hat-tricks as he presently has. With eight Premier League hat-tricks already under his belt, the Norwegian shooter’s options are truly endless.
Haaland and some of the greatest players that have ever played the game are predicted to be at the top of this list when we revisit it in the future. The only thing that will probably keep Pep Guardiola from finishing in the top three is the fact that he has been lucky not to lose his striker to serious injury thus far.
8 England’s Harry Kane has 26 hat-tricks.
Among these players, the name of Tottenham’s all-time top scorer and England’s all-time leading striker was bound to appear. It is really impressive that Harry Kane, who is only 31 years old and still playing, has more hat-tricks than players like Aguero, Gomez, and Huntelaar, who are all retired from the game.
Kane already had 18 hat-tricks when he left England, and he has already added seven more at Bayern Munich. The Englishman, who is among the best scorers in Premier League history, is also far from finished based on how frequently he scores goals.
7Vyacheslav Zahovaiko (Estonia)
26 hat-tricks
By any measure, 26 hat-tricks is amazing, since the Estonian scored 121 goals throughout his 1999–2019 stint with FC Flora in his own country. With an average of 1.2 goals per game over the calendar year, he was the most effective forward in front of goal in 2006.
With his reputation as a club legend well established in FC Flora’s history books, Vyacheslav Zahovaiko is worthy of his flowers after a career spanning three decades. In 39 appearances for Estonia, he only managed to score eight goals, making his international career less successful.
Ali Mabkhout (UAE) has six hat-tricks and 27
Prior to joining Al-Nasr SC in 2024, Mabkhout, a renowned goal scorer, played his whole career at Al Jazira. The fact that he scored 210 goals in 281 league games is incredible, and Al Jazira supporters must have been devastated when he left. Mabkhout has scored nine hat-tricks for his nation and is the all-time leading scorer for the UAE Pro League team.
Since he is once again a lesser-known name in the football world, it might be dismissed, but it is extraordinary to score over 30 hat-tricks at any level. In their local Sunday League, most fans would find it difficult to do so!
5 Luis Suarez (30 hat-tricks) from Uruguay
Sometimes people forget how good Luis Suarez was at scoring goals, especially while he was at Barcelona, because Lionel Messi’s skill took centre stage. His career total of thirty hat-tricks demonstrates his skill in front of goal. Along with his exceptional technical skill and competitive spirit, he scored a lot of goals throughout his time at Ajax, Liverpool, and Barcelona.
He is still active and has the opportunity to add a couple more hat-tricks to his MLS total with Inter Miami, just like the other players on the list. Although he is running out of time, who would want to wager against the Uruguayan increasing his total?
33 hat-tricks from 4 Robert Lewandowski (Poland)
With five, Robert Lewandowski is tied with Gomez, who is also on this list, for the most Bundesliga hat-tricks in a single season. Furthermore, the Polish attacker has scored a hat-trick for three different Champions League teams, with trebles on the horizon for Barcelona, Bayern Munich, and Borussia Dortmund. He has demonstrated his ability to perform on the international front by scoring six hat-tricks for his nation.
Lewandowski was the best at converting the many scoring opportunities that come with playing for Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga, as Kane is now aware. With 312 goals, he is the second-highest goal scorer in Bundesliga history, only surpassed by the great Gerd Muller.
3 Maldivian Ali Ashfaq (35 hat-tricks)
Since Ali Ashfaq spent a large portion of his playing career in his native Maldives, many fans will not be familiar with this name. During his career, the forward played for 13 different clubs, yet he scored more goals than he appeared at seven of those teams.
Ashfaq’s ability to score goals has also carried to international football, as he has scored 58 goals in 98 outings for his country.
Argentina’s Lionel Messi has 59 hat-tricks.
Although he must accept second place on this chart for scoring 91 goals in a single calendar year, 59 hat-tricks must be considered pure madness. Over the years, Lionel Messi has been a pleasure to watch, and while numbers like these have all but become commonplace, it is still amazing for a player who played the majority of his career on the right-wing to score three goals in 59 games.
Messi joined Inter Miami during the summer transfer window of 2023, and the Argentine wonder has never been seen in the American game before. The forward isn’t even close to slowing down after scoring two hat-tricks in a single week during the 2024–25 season, and we’d be shocked if the total wasn’t greater when the 37-year-old ultimately hangs up his boots.
1Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal)
66 hat-tricks
Speaking of Messi’s incredible feat of reaching 59 hat-tricks, Ronaldo has been able to maintain a healthy space from his fiercest opponent. Regardless of how you look at it, the Portugal international has won this title handily. Seevn may have had more hat-tricks, most of which came for Los Blancos, because he was the centre striker for many years.
Not surprisingly, either, as Ronaldo is the greatest goal scorer of all time and, should he decide to retire in the upcoming years, will try to surpass that record in his final years with Al Nassr. Getting two hat-tricks in four days won’t hurt, for sure. Given his superhuman abilities and the fact that he is still among the top football players in the world, nobody would be shocked to see the forward play long into his 40s.
