Fifty-four hat-tricks have been registered in the World Cup. The most in one edition was the eight at Switzerland 1954, while Germany 2006 was the one without a treble.
Four players have hit multiple hat-tricks: Hungary’s Sandor Kocsis, France’s Just Fontaine, West Germany’s Gerd Muller and Argentina’s Gabriel Batistuta. ‘Batigol’ is the only player to bag one in two World Cups, doing so against Greece at USA 1994 and Jamaica at France 1998. Ironically, both came on 21 June!
Laszlo Kiss is the only substitute to score a hat-trick. The Hungary forward also scored the fastest in World Cup history, after only seven minutes and 42 seconds, in a 10-1 destruction of El Salvador at Spain 1982. The earliest from kick-off belongs to Austria’s Erich Probst, who struck thrice in the opening 24 minutes against Czechoslovakia in 1954.
Geoff Hurst became the first man to score three times in a final, propelling England to a 4-2 extra-time victory over West Germany in 1966. Kylian Mbappe became the second in a heroic – but ultimately unsuccessful – attempt to grab France glory against Argentina at Qatar 2022.
