Nov 5, 2011
As three of the most prolific goalscorers this season continue to battle it out for hat-trick supremacy, Goal.com unearths some interesting facts and figures about the treble
As three of the most prolific goalscorers this season continue to battle it out for hat-trick supremacy, Goal.com unearths some interesting facts and figures about the treble
We’re only three months into the new club season in Europe’s major leagues, but the hat-tricks have been pouring in left, right and centre.
There used to be a time when hat-tricks were a rarity, a unique achievement, so much so that a player gets to take home the match ball. And only the giants of the game, legends such as Gerd Muller, Michel Platini, Marco van Basten, Alan Shearer, Romario and of course the man they call ‘The King’, Pele, would effortlessly rattle off treble after treble.
But so far in the fledgling 2011-12 campaign, well over 20 hat-tricks have been netted throughout Europe. Matchday four of the Champions League this past midweek alone saw Lionel Messi and Mario Gomez netting thrice. And the pair of them have already bagged seven hat-tricks between them this term.
It was also Messi’s second hat-trick in a row after scoring three times against Mallorca last weekend prior to the mauling of Viktoria Plzen. Back in late August and early September, Gomez also recorded back-to-back hat-tricks, as did CSKA Moscow’s Seydou Doumbia in late October, although his Russian Premier League campaign will conclude for a mid-season break this weekend.
When Barcelona travel to San Mames to face Athletic Bilbao this Sunday, Messi will be eyeing a hat-trick of hat-tricks: three trebles in a row. If he does succeed in scoring three more this weekend, he will have one more club game to go to attempt to match the current world record holder of the most consecutive hat-tricks, Japan’s Nakayama Masashi, who netted four on the trot in the J-League.In 2010, Messi scored six hat-tricks in a single calendar year, while last campaign, Cristiano Ronaldo reeled off seven hat-tricks in a single football season. The two La Liga megastars, along with Gomez, have taken the art of scoring hat-tricks to a new level. It just seems that every other week – if not every week – one of them will send three goals or more past a poor, hapless goalkeeper. It’s possible that by the end of the season, Messi, Ronaldo and Gomez would each have pocketed more hat-tricks than most strikers would have goals.
It’s not because they are playing in Spain or Germany, where goals are supposedly easier to come by.
The Premier League’s record number of hat-tricks is 11 by Alan Shearer. Over in Italy, Filipo Inzaghi has more trebles than any other player in Serie A, with 10 in total. And to further prove the point that it’s just as easy to score three in a game even in the tactical world of ‘calcio’, in 2004 two players from opposing teams scored a hat-trick each: Tommaso Rocchi for Empoli and David Trezeguet for Juventus in a match that finished 3-3.
Not surprisingly, it’s a lot more difficult to score a triple in the Champions League. Despite the competition parading goal-machines such as Raul, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Andriy Shevchenko and Thierry Henry, the most hat-tricks by a single player currently stands at a measly three, held by Inzaghi and Michael Owen. For the record, Messi and Gomez are both now just one behind.
All those may be phenomenal numbers, but football’s hotshots in the modern game are still quite a long way off Dixie Dean’s collection of 37 club hat-tricks. And no one can compare to Pele, who has, if tradition had been followed religiously, 92 match balls is in his trophy cabinet.
There used to be a time when hat-tricks were a rarity, a unique achievement, so much so that a player gets to take home the match ball. And only the giants of the game, legends such as Gerd Muller, Michel Platini, Marco van Basten, Alan Shearer, Romario and of course the man they call ‘The King’, Pele, would effortlessly rattle off treble after treble.
But so far in the fledgling 2011-12 campaign, well over 20 hat-tricks have been netted throughout Europe. Matchday four of the Champions League this past midweek alone saw Lionel Messi and Mario Gomez netting thrice. And the pair of them have already bagged seven hat-tricks between them this term.
It was also Messi’s second hat-trick in a row after scoring three times against Mallorca last weekend prior to the mauling of Viktoria Plzen. Back in late August and early September, Gomez also recorded back-to-back hat-tricks, as did CSKA Moscow’s Seydou Doumbia in late October, although his Russian Premier League campaign will conclude for a mid-season break this weekend.
| MULTIPLE HAT-TRICK SCORERS IN 2011-12 | |||
 | |||
| PLAYER | CLUB | HAT-TRICKS | |
| Messi | Barcelona | 4 | |
| Gomez | Bayern | 3 | |
| Huntelaar | Schalke | 3 | |
| Ronaldo | R. Madrid | 3 | |
| Demba Ba | Newcastle | 2 | |
| Higuain | R. Madrid | 2 | |
| Rooney | Man Utd | 2 | |
When Barcelona travel to San Mames to face Athletic Bilbao this Sunday, Messi will be eyeing a hat-trick of hat-tricks: three trebles in a row. If he does succeed in scoring three more this weekend, he will have one more club game to go to attempt to match the current world record holder of the most consecutive hat-tricks, Japan’s Nakayama Masashi, who netted four on the trot in the J-League.In 2010, Messi scored six hat-tricks in a single calendar year, while last campaign, Cristiano Ronaldo reeled off seven hat-tricks in a single football season. The two La Liga megastars, along with Gomez, have taken the art of scoring hat-tricks to a new level. It just seems that every other week – if not every week – one of them will send three goals or more past a poor, hapless goalkeeper. It’s possible that by the end of the season, Messi, Ronaldo and Gomez would each have pocketed more hat-tricks than most strikers would have goals.
It’s not because they are playing in Spain or Germany, where goals are supposedly easier to come by.
The Premier League’s record number of hat-tricks is 11 by Alan Shearer. Over in Italy, Filipo Inzaghi has more trebles than any other player in Serie A, with 10 in total. And to further prove the point that it’s just as easy to score three in a game even in the tactical world of ‘calcio’, in 2004 two players from opposing teams scored a hat-trick each: Tommaso Rocchi for Empoli and David Trezeguet for Juventus in a match that finished 3-3.
Not surprisingly, it’s a lot more difficult to score a triple in the Champions League. Despite the competition parading goal-machines such as Raul, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Andriy Shevchenko and Thierry Henry, the most hat-tricks by a single player currently stands at a measly three, held by Inzaghi and Michael Owen. For the record, Messi and Gomez are both now just one behind.
All those may be phenomenal numbers, but football’s hotshots in the modern game are still quite a long way off Dixie Dean’s collection of 37 club hat-tricks. And no one can compare to Pele, who has, if tradition had been followed religiously, 92 match balls is in his trophy cabinet.
| Leading hat-trick goalscorers (active players) |
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