TheFIFA World Cup is an internationalassociation football competition established in1930. It is contested by themen's national teams of the members of theFIFA, the sport's global governing body. The tournament has taken place organised every four years, except in 1942 and 1946, when the competition was cancelled due toWorld War II. Ahat-trick occurs when a player scores three or more goals in a single match and it is considered an achievement, especially while playing at the largest international football tournament in the world. Across the over 800 matches at the 22 tournaments of the FIFA World Cup, 54 hat-tricks have been scored. The first hat-trick was scored byBert Patenaude of theUnited States, playing againstParaguay in1930; the most recent was byKylian Mbappé ofFrance, playing againstArgentina on 18 December2022. The only World Cup not to have at least one hat-trick scored was the2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. The record number of hat-tricks in a single World Cup tournament is eight, during the1954 FIFA World Cup in Switzerland.
Only four players have scored more than one hat-trick at the FIFA World Cup:Sándor Kocsis (two in1954),Just Fontaine (two in1958),Gerd Müller (two in1970) andGabriel Batistuta (1994 and1998) — the latter being the only player in history to score hat-tricks at two World Cups. 19 players have scored a hat-trick in the knockout stage of the FIFA World Cup. Two were playing in their first ever World Cup match,Edmund Conen andAngelo Schiavio, both in1934, a tournament without a group stage.Geoff Hurst (1966) and Kylian Mbappé (2022), who also scored 2 penalties, are the only players to have scored a hat-trick inthe final. Two players have scored a hat-trick in the second group stage of the World Cup,Paolo Rossi andZbigniew Boniek, both in1982.
Bert Patenaude was thefirst player to score a hat-trick in a World Cup match, on 17 July 1930 againstParaguay. However, until 10 November 2006 the first hat-trick that FIFA acknowledged had been scored byGuillermo Stábile ofArgentina, two days after Patenaude. In 2006, FIFA announced that Patenaude's claim to being the first hat-trick scorer was valid, as teammateTom Florie's goal in the match against Paraguay was re-attributed to him.[52][53]
Four players have scoredtwo hat-tricks in World Cup matches:Sándor Kocsis (both1954);Just Fontaine (both1958);Gerd Müller (both1970); andGabriel Batistuta (1994 and1998).[54] Batistuta is thus the only person to score hat-tricks in two World Cups. He has another unique record of scoring hat-tricks, both were achieved on 21 June of the year, against World Cup finals debutants (Greece and Jamaica), and each time the third goal was a penalty.[55] Kocsis and Müller scored their hat-tricks in consecutive matches.
Two players have scoredhat-tricks in World Cup Finals.Geoff Hurst scored three goals forEngland againstWest Germany in the1966 final.[54][60] This is also thelongest hat-trick to be completed — most time between the first and third goals. His first goal came at 18', while the second and third goals were inextra time at 98' and 120'.Kylian Mbappé scored the other World Cup finals' hat-trick in the2022 FIFA World Cupfinal forFrance againstArgentina. His goals were scored at the 80th, 81st and 118th minute marks. Two of his goals - 80th and 118th - were successful penalty kicks.
Thequickest hat-trick by a player isErich Probst, who scored at 4', 21', and 24' in1954, playing forAustria againstCzechoslovakia in the first round.
Thebriefest hat-trick to be completed — that is, the shortest time between the first and third goals — is the one byLászló Kiss in1982 againstEl Salvador. He scored at 69', 72', and 76', making the time between his first and third 7 minutes. This is also theonly hat-trick scored by a substitute.
Germany (incl. West Germany) holds the record formost hat-tricks scored with 7. Germany also shares with South Korea the record formost hat-tricks conceded with 4.
