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Know them: Who are the youngest, oldest, fastest, and quickest World Cup hat-trick scorers?
19th June, 2026 09:44 AM
In football, a player breaching the opposition’s goal three times is a special feat in the game. Not only does it earn one the right to claim the match ball after the full-time whistle, but it also sees one’s name etched among the elite list, especially when a global competition of huge magnitude like the World Cup is involved.
Canada’s Jonathan David became the latest player to notch a hat trick at the global showdown on Friday, June 18, 2026, after Lionel Messi’s record-breaking treble against Algeria
K24 Digital Sports gives a rundown of the major facts about World Cup hat-tricks, as well as a compilation of some of the crucial World Cup hat-tricks scored.
Five-goal show
Russia’s Oleg Salenko is the sole footballer to score five goals in a single game at the World Cup, according to Opta Stats. Oleg’s five-goal haul came in his nation’s 6-1 group-stage thrashing of Cameroon in June 1994.
The goal added to his first in the group stages proved sufficient to win him the Golden Boot at the tournament in the USA, which he shared with Bulgarian legend Hristo Stoichkov.
Earliest and quickest hat tricks
In June 1954, Erich Probst scored the earliest ever hat-trick on record. The Austrian ace managed the feat inside the opening 24 minutes of their group-stage match with Czechoslovakia.
The feat for the quickest or fastest—in terms of minutes between scoring three goals—belongs to Hungarian László Kiss, who scored a hat-trick in the space of just seven minutes and 42 seconds at the 1982 World Cup versus El Salvador.
Pele and Messi’s records
Pelé remains the youngest player to score a hat-trick at a men’s World Cup, with his treble in Brazil’s 1958 semi-final victory over France coming when he was aged just 17 years and 244 days old. He is the only player to score a hat-trick under the age of 18.
Lionel Messi is the oldest player to score a hat-trick at a World Cup, doing so in his 200th overall appearance for Argentina during the win over Algeria.
Most hat-tricks in World Cup history
Meanwhile, the record for the most trebles scored in the competition’s history is jointly held by Just Fontaine of France, Sándor Peter Kocsis, and Germany’s Gerd Müller.
Fontaine scored in two separate matches at the same men’s World Cup, bagging trebles against Paraguay and four more goals against Germany in the 1958 tournament.
Former Hungarian footballer Kocsis (1954) also bagged a hat trick in two separate games, while legendary German striker Müller scored back-to-back hat tricks in games against Bulgaria and Peru at Mexico 1970.
Gabriel Batistuta is the only one to have scored a hat-trick at two different editions of the tournament. The Argentine scored three goals against Greece at the 1994 World Cup.
He replicated the feat four years later at the 1998 tournament, this time putting Jamaica to the sword with a three-goal show.
Hat trick in finals
Geoff Hurst was the first player in the history of the World Cup to score a hat-trick in the final.
His iconic treble for England against West Germany in 1966 at Wembley was sealed in the last minute of extra time, helping the Three Lions to a 4-2 victory and England’s only ever title.
Mbappé is the only other player who has managed the feat, scoring three times for France in the 2022 final. The spectacular display, however, proved just short as a Lionel Messi-inspired Argentina took the game to spot kicks after a 3-3 draw, with the South Americans winning 4-2 on penalties.
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