FIFA World Cup Goals Hat-Trick Records by Player
FIFA World Cup goals hat-trick records by player tell the story of football’s most explosive matches. A hat-trick at the World Cup is rare enough. Doing it in a knockout game, a final, or more than once is even rarer.
The quick answer is that 54 hat-tricks have been recorded in the men’s FIFA World Cup through Qatar 2022. Four players share the record for the most World Cup hat-tricks, with two each: Sandor Kocsis, Just Fontaine, Gerd Muller, and Gabriel Batistuta. Batistuta is the only one to do it in two different tournaments, which is why his name still stands out in this category.
For readers following the FIFA World Cup 2026 storylines, this is a useful record set to know. The expanded tournament will bring more matches, but it still may not make hat-tricks common. History shows that even the greatest forwards often leave the World Cup without one.
What counts as a FIFA World Cup hat-trick?
In this context, a hat-trick means a player scored at least three goals in one men’s FIFA World Cup finals match. It does not matter whether the goals came in normal time or extra time. Four-goal and five-goal games also count.
That matters because some of the biggest entries on this list were more than standard hat-tricks. Oleg Salenko scored five for Russia in 1994. Just Fontaine, Sandor Kocsis, Ademir, Eusebio, and Emilio Butragueno all had four-goal World Cup games.
Who has the most FIFA World Cup hat-tricks?
Four players are tied for the record with two hat-tricks each. No player has ever scored three separate hat-tricks in men’s World Cup history.
That shared record says a lot about how hard this feat is. Even players who dominated their era could only hit the mark twice.
Players with the most World Cup hat-tricks
| Player | Country | Hat-tricks | World Cups |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sandor Kocsis | Hungary | 2 | 1954 |
| Just Fontaine | France | 2 | 1958 |
| Gerd Muller | West Germany | 2 | 1970 |
| Gabriel Batistuta | Argentina | 2 | 1994, 1998 |
Kocsis, Fontaine, and Muller each scored both of their hat-tricks in one edition. Batistuta did something different. He scored one in 1994 and another in 1998, making him the only player to produce World Cup hat-tricks in two separate tournaments.
Every player who scored 3+ goals in one FIFA World Cup match
Here is the full men’s World Cup list through the 2022 final.
| No. | Player | Team | Opponent | Tournament | Goals | Round |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bert Patenaude | United States | Paraguay | 1930 | 3 | Group stage |
| 2 | Guillermo Stabile | Argentina | Mexico | 1930 | 3 | Group stage |
| 3 | Pedro Cea | Uruguay | Yugoslavia | 1930 | 3 | Semi-finals |
| 4 | Angelo Schiavio | Italy | United States | 1934 | 3 | Round of 16 |
| 5 | Edmund Conen | Germany | Belgium | 1934 | 3 | Round of 16 |
| 6 | Oldrich Nejedly | Czechoslovakia | Germany | 1934 | 3 | Semi-finals |
| 7 | Ernst Wilimowski | Poland | Brazil | 1938 | 4 | Round of 16 |
| 8 | Leonidas | Brazil | Poland | 1938 | 3 | Round of 16 |
| 9 | Gustav Wetterstrom | Sweden | Cuba | 1938 | 3 | Quarter-finals |
| 10 | Harry Andersson | Sweden | Cuba | 1938 | 3 | Quarter-finals |
| 11 | Oscar Miguez | Uruguay | Bolivia | 1950 | 3 | Group stage |
| 12 | Ademir | Brazil | Sweden | 1950 | 4 | Final group stage |
| 13 | Sandor Kocsis | Hungary | South Korea | 1954 | 3 | Group stage |
| 14 | Erich Probst | Austria | Czechoslovakia | 1954 | 3 | Group stage |
| 15 | Carlos Borges | Uruguay | Scotland | 1954 | 3 | Group stage |
| 16 | Sandor Kocsis | Hungary | West Germany | 1954 | 4 | Group stage |
| 17 | Burhan Sargin | Turkey | South Korea | 1954 | 3 | Group stage |
| 18 | Max Morlock | West Germany | Turkey | 1954 | 3 | Group stage |
| 19 | Theodor Wagner | Austria | Switzerland | 1954 | 3 | Quarter-finals |
| 20 | Josef Hugi | Switzerland | Austria | 1954 | 3 | Quarter-finals |
| 21 | Just Fontaine | France | Paraguay | 1958 | 3 | Group stage |
| 22 | Pele | Brazil | France | 1958 | 3 | Semi-finals |
| 23 | Just Fontaine | France | West Germany | 1958 | 4 | Third-place match |
| 24 | Florian Albert | Hungary | Bulgaria | 1962 | 3 | Group stage |
| 25 | Eusebio | Portugal | North Korea | 1966 | 4 | Quarter-finals |
| 26 | Geoff Hurst | England | West Germany | 1966 | 3 | Final |
| 27 | Gerd Muller | West Germany | Bulgaria | 1970 | 3 | Group stage |
| 28 | Gerd Muller | West Germany | Peru | 1970 | 3 | Group stage |
| 29 | Dusan Bajevic | Yugoslavia | Zaire | 1974 | 3 | Group stage |
| 30 | Andrzej Szarmach | Poland | Haiti | 1974 | 3 | Group stage |
| 31 | Rob Rensenbrink | Netherlands | Iran | 1978 | 3 | Group stage |
| 32 | Teofilo Cubillas | Peru | Iran | 1978 | 3 | Group stage |
| 33 | Laszlo Kiss | Hungary | El Salvador | 1982 | 3 | Group stage |
| 34 | Karl-Heinz Rummenigge | West Germany | Chile | 1982 | 3 | Group stage |
| 35 | Zbigniew Boniek | Poland | Belgium | 1982 | Second group stage | |
| 36 | Paolo Rossi | Italy | Brazil | 1982 | 3 | Second group stage |
| 37 | Preben Elkjaer | Denmark | Uruguay | 1986 | 3 | Group stage |
| 38 | Gary Lineker | England | Poland | 1986 | 3 | Group stage |
| 39 | Igor Belanov | Soviet Union | Belgium | 1986 | 3 | Round of 16 |
| 40 | Emilio Butragueno | Spain | Denmark | 1986 | 4 | Round of 16 |
| 41 | Michel | Spain | South Korea | 1990 | 3 | Group stage |
| 42 | Tomas Skuhravy | Czechoslovakia | Costa Rica | 1990 | 3 | Round of 16 |
| 43 | Gabriel Batistuta | Argentina | Greece | 1994 | 3 | Group stage |
| 44 | Oleg Salenko | Russia | Cameroon | 1994 | 5 | Group stage |
| 45 | Gabriel Batistuta | Argentina | Jamaica | 1998 | 3 | Group stage |
| 46 | Miroslav Klose | Germany | Saudi Arabia | 2002 | 3 | Group stage |
| 47 | Pauleta | Portugal | Poland | 2002 | 3 | Group stage |
| 48 | Gonzalo Higuain | Argentina | South Korea | 2010 | 3 | Group stage |
| 49 | Thomas Muller | Germany | Portugal | 2014 | 3 | Group stage |
| 50 | Xherdan Shaqiri | Switzerland | Honduras | 2014 | 3 | Group stage |
| 51 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Portugal | Spain | 2018 | 3 | Group stage |
| 52 | Harry Kane | England | Panama | 2018 | 3 | Group stage |
| 53 | Goncalo Ramos | Portugal | Switzerland | 2022 | 3 | Round of 16 |
| 54 | Kylian Mbappe | France | Argentina | 2022 | 3 | Final |
See Also: FIFA World Cup Golden Boot Winners List 1930–2026
The biggest FIFA World Cup hat-trick records to know
The headline number is simple. Oleg Salenko owns the record for most goals in one World Cup match, with five against Cameroon in 1994. Nobody else has reached five.
After that, several players share the four-goal mark. That group includes Ernst Wilimowski, Ademir, Sandor Kocsis, Just Fontaine, Eusebio, and Emilio Butragueno. Those games sit just below Salenko’s outlier performance.
Why FIFA World Cup hat-trick records stand out
World Cup matches are usually tense and high-stakes. Teams rarely give elite forwards space for 90 minutes. That is why hat-tricks tend to become part of tournament folklore.
Some happened in wild attacking eras, especially in the 1930s, 1950s, and 1970s. Others came in modern football, where defensive detail is much sharper. That is what makes Mbappe in 2022 and Cristiano Ronaldo in 2018 feel especially impressive.
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Who has the most FIFA World Cup hat-tricks?
Four players are tied for the record with two hat-tricks each. No player has ever scored three separate hat-tricks in men’s World Cup history.
That shared record says a lot about how hard this feat is. Even players who dominated their era could only hit the mark twice.
Players with the most World Cup hat-tricks
| Player | Country | Hat-tricks | World Cups |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sandor Kocsis | Hungary | 2 | 1954 |
| Just Fontaine | France | 2 | 1958 |
| Gerd Muller | West Germany | 2 | 1970 |
| Gabriel Batistuta | Argentina | 2 | 1994, 1998 |
Kocsis, Fontaine, and Muller each scored both of their hat-tricks in one edition. Batistuta did something different. He scored one in 1994 and another in 1998, making him the only player to produce World Cup hat-tricks in two separate tournaments.
The most famous hat-tricks in tournament history
Geoff Hurst’s 1966 final for England still carries huge historical weight. He was the first man to score a hat-trick in a men’s World Cup final. For many fans, that remains the iconic World Cup treble.
Mbappe joined him in 2022, although France lost on penalties after a 3-3 draw with Argentina. That made Mbappe only the second player to score three in a World Cup final, and the first to do it in more than half a century.
Pele’s semi-final hat-trick against France in 1958 also deserves special mention. He was still only 17. That remains one of the great arrival moments in football history.
Which records could be challenged in 2026?
The expanded 2026 tournament will create more matches overall, but that does not automatically mean more hat-tricks. Elite defenses, squad rotation, and tighter knockout games still make them hard to produce.
Even so, the wider field could increase the chances of big scorelines in the early phase. That is where many World Cup hat-trick records have historically been built. So while no new record is guaranteed, 2026 should at least give top forwards a real shot.
FAQs
Oleg Salenko did, with five for Russia against Cameroon at the 1994 World Cup.
Bert Patenaude of the United States was the first, against Paraguay on July 17, 1930.
Yes. Geoff Hurst did it for England in 1966, and Kylian Mbappe did it for France in 2022.
Four players share the record with two each: Sandor Kocsis, Just Fontaine, Gerd Müller, and Gabriel Batistuta.
Yes. Laszlo Kiss of Hungary did it against El Salvador in 1982, and he is still the only one.
Conclusion
World Cup hat-trick records offer one of the cleanest ways to track football’s most explosive performances. From Patenaude in 1930 to Mbappe in 2022, every entry on this list marks a day when a player completely took over the tournament stage.
For readers following the road to the FIFA World Cup 2026, this is one record category worth keeping close. A Golden Boot race can build slowly, but a hat-trick changes the story in one match.
Check Also: Most Goals in a Single FIFA World Cup Tournament: Records by Player
