The Top 20 Players with the Most Hat-tricks in Football - Updated

Cristiano Ronaldo has scored the most hat-tricks in football history. Ronaldo scored 66 hat-tricks by the end of the 2023/24 club season. Lionel Messi, his great rival, has scored 59 hat-tricks in his distinguished career. Ronaldo has scored 56 club hat-tricks, the most of any footballer. 

The Portugal striker also led the international treble stakes, but Messi has caught up. The Argentina skipper went level with Ronaldo on ten international hat-tricks. In October 2024, Messi equalled Ronaldo’s international trebles record when he scored three goals in Argentina’s 6-2 win over Bolivia during the South American FIFA 2026 World Cup qualifying. 

The diminutive Argentine scored back-to-back trebles in October for Argentina and Inter Miami, adding two assists in each game. According to Guinness World Records, however, Pelé has scored the most hat-tricks in history. Records indicate the Brazilian scored the most legitimate senior trebles. 

Based on the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF) data, the record belongs to Erwin Helmchen, with at least 141 trebles. RSSSF is an international organisation that collects and stores football statistics and data. According to RSSSF, Helmchen scored the most hat-tricks in official matches in recorded history.  

Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez//Getty Images

The German striker played from the 1920s to the 1950s, for many clubs during a decades-long career. He played for five clubs across his 28-year career: FV Brandenburg Cottbus, PSV Chemnitz, SG Chemnitz Nord, and VfB Lübeck. 

Helmchen’s incredible goalscoring ability, particularly for PSV Chemnitz, saw him score over 418 goals in 747 plus appearances. According to RSSSF, he netted at least 141 hat-tricks in official matches. This includes scoring eight goals twice, seven goals three times, six goals ten times, and five goals on 15 occasions.

Although Helmchen’s career and scoring feats are remarkable, all of his career was played in Prussian regional leagues, and he was called up by Germany but uncapped at the international level. SportsBoom explored the football archives in search of the top 20 players with the most hat-tricks in football and added context to the researched records. 

We use internationally recognised and respected sources to compile this extensive list. RSSSF and Guinness World Records were not the only sources used. Transfermarkt, the International Federation of Football History & Statistics IFFHS, and internationally recognised media outlets were all consulted and cited for this article. 

Lionel Messi, Neymar, and Kylian Mbappe celebrating//Getty Images

Players with the Most Hat-tricks in Football

The most hat tricks in football are often credited to Pelé. The Brazil legend is the sixth-highest goal scorer in football history. He scored 92 hat-tricks for club and country in his career. The Brazilian is still the youngest player to score a hat-trick at a World Cup. ‘O Rei’ (‘The King’), as he was affectionately known, achieved this unique feat at the age of 17 in the 1958 World Cup in Sweden. 

However, like Erwin Helmchen, a large proportion of Pelé’s 92 total hat-tricks came in friendlies. There is no absolute certainty to know for sure how many trebles were regarded as official. Moreover, the Guinness Book of World Records recognizes Pelé as the footballer with the most hat tricks in the history of the beautiful game. 

The authenticity of Helmchen’s and Pelé’s records is contentious and unreliable. Despite this, the Brazilian is, without a doubt, one of the greatest players of all time. Pelé never played in Europe during his illustrious career. This leaves an asterisk on many of his records. They are questionable when ranked alongside the other greats of the game. Still, 92 trebles are a magnificent achievement.

There are two players from Argentina, Brazil, and Germany on the top 20 list. There are seventeen countries represented on the trebles chart. Players have been omitted from the list because too many goals were scored in lower leagues and friendlies, and some did not have international careers. 

Several great players from the mid-twentieth century have been omitted due to their scoring records being unreliable. Josef Bican and Ferenc Deák are both unreliably credited with one hundred plus hat-tricks. For these reasons, they are not included. Some players from lesser leagues have been included because the data is accurate.

Ali Ashfaq is included as he played 98 internationals for the Maldives. Conversely, Greg Draper scored 20 hat-tricks but only played one international match for New Zealand. Ronnie Rooke is credited with 97 trebles, five more than Pelé. Rooke only played for England once (1942 wartime cap). He spent most of his career in the lower divisions, therefore, his record is not counted. 

Marc Lloyd Williams scored 24 hat-tricks, but he played most of his career in the Welsh regional divisions and English lower leagues. He represented Wales B but never the senior national team. Helmchen also did not play international football. However, his goalscoring records are accurate according to the data, which includes his hat-tricks, and he played in some higher regional Prussian leagues of the former German Empire.  

Reliable and accurate data and stats show Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have scored the most hat-tricks. They have a staggering 125 senior hat-tricks between them. Ronaldo has 66 trebles. The last time he scored three goals in a game was in May 2024. However, the Portugal forward last scored an international hat-trick in October 2021. 

Messi has bagged four hat-tricks for Argentina, in the same period. Only Messi and Erling Haaland look likely to get close to Ronaldo’s record. For ‘Leo’ and CR7, it is a matter of time, and who retires first. Messi’s last two club and country hat-tricks came in October 2024. If Haaland continues his incredible goalscoring feats, he has a good shot at the hat-trick world record. 

The Manchester City striker scored back-to-back hat-tricks in August 2024. Haaland has eight Premier League trebles in barely two-and-a-half seasons. For context, Haaland has equalled Ronaldo’s number of EPL hat-tricks (8). The Portuguese, however, took eight seasons to reach eight. The Norway frontman reached eight in just over two seasons.

Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi//Getty Images

Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi: Modern Scoring Machines   

Cristiano Ronaldo has scored three or more times in a game 11 times, scoring four goals in a match nine times, and five goals twice. Lionel Messi has scored three or more goals in a game eight times, four goals six times, and five goals twice. CR7 has more hat-tricks than Messi at both club and country level. The Portuguese playmaker has 56 club trebles to Messi’s 49; they are level on ten trebles apiece in international football.

Ronaldo became the first player to reach 10 international hat-tricks when he netted three goals for Portugal in a 5-0 win over Luxembourg on October 12, 2021. The former Real Madrid Galactico is the oldest player to score a hat-trick at the FIFA Men’s World Cup. He scored three times in a 3-3 draw with Spain in Russia on June 15, 2018.

Both players share eight trebles apiece in the UEFA Champions League, but Ronaldo has 45 league hat-tricks to Messi’s 38. The Portuguese goal machine has, however, played two years more senior club football than the South American, and is older. The next couple of years will be enticing as the two greatest players of all time duke it out for more scoring records before retiring.

Breakdown of Cristiano Ronaldo’s 66 hat-tricks by team

• 44 hat-tricks for Real Madrid
• 10 hat-tricks for Portugal
• 6 hat-tricks for Al Nassr
• 3 hat-tricks for Manchester United
• 3 hat-tricks for Juventus
• 0 hat-tricks for Sporting Lisbon

Breakdown of Lionel Messi’s 59 hat-tricks by team

• 48 hat-tricks for Barcelona
• 10 hat-tricks for Argentina
• 1 hat-trick for Inter Miami
• 0 hat-tricks for Paris Saint-Germain

Robert Lewandowski//Getty Images 

Who are the Top 10 Players with the Most Hat-tricks in the 21st Century?

The list of ten players with the most hat-tricks in the twenty-first century is incredible. Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi obviously lead the way. Robert Lewandowski, who was unfortunate not to win the 2020 Ballon d’Or because of Covid-19, is third. Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappé might get close to overtaking the Poland striker. 

The way Erling Haaland is netting trebles, he will quickly overtake Kane. He will pass Lewandowski in a few years. The Norwegian goal machine is scoring hat-tricks for fun. He is only 24 years old and could play another decade plus if he stays fit and healthy. Haaland (24) is already past Zlatan Ibrahimović (20) and Neymar (21), two of the most entertaining and deadly strikers of the last two decades. 

Haaland already has two successive trebles in the 2024/25 English Premier League season. Messi has also scored back-to-back hat-tricks in 2024. The probability of any other footballer doing the same is unlikely. As mentioned above, the Argentina captain scored his two trebles for Argentina and Inter Miami. Moreover, Messi netted two assists in each game, something Haaland is incapable of achieving.

Who Scored the Most Hat-tricks in European Club and International Tournament Football?

Michel Platini is the only player to register two hat-tricks in UEFA European Championship(Euros) tournaments. There have, however, been ten footballers to score trebles in the Copa América: Javier Ambrois, Ademir Marques de Menezes, David Arellano, Teodoro Fernández, José Paolo Guerrero, Herminio Masantonio, Pedro Petrone, Sylvio Pirillo, Jose Sanfilippo, and Severino Varela.

Gabriel Batistuta (1994, 1998), Sándor Kocsis (1954), Just Fontaine (1958), and Gerd Müller (1970) are the only players to score two FIFA World Cup hat-tricks. Geoff Hurst and Kylian Mbappé are the only two players to have scored a World Cup final hat-trick. Hurst notched his treble for England against West Germany in a 4-2 extra-time win at Wembley Stadium in 1966.

Mbappé scored three times against Argentina in Qatar in 2022. The match ended 3-3 after extra time, but Argentina beat France 4-2 on penalties. Ferenc Puskás is the only player to score two hat-tricks in a major international club final. Puskás notched trebles in the 1960 and 1962 European Cup finals (UEFA Champions League) for Real Madrid.

Ronaldo celebrating with Portugal teammates//Getty Images

The Most International Hat-tricks in Football History

Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi share the top spot with ten international hat-tricks for Portugal and Argentina, respectively. Messi, however, has played 25 fewer internationals than Ronaldo. Sven Rydell and Ali Mabkhout are equal second. They scored nine trebles in their careers with Sweden and the United Arab Emirates. 

Rydell scored nine trebles in only 43 internationals. Mabkhout racked up nine in 114, one fewer than Ronaldo and Messi. However, CR7  has played 102 more times for his country. Even more remarkable is Poul Nielsen scoring eight hat-tricks in 38 games for Denmark. 

For context, countries like the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Hungary, and Libya often played in weaker international regional tournaments and continental and World Cup qualifiers. European and South American nations play in tougher coefficient competitions, where teams are equally as good as each other.