Messi, Mbappe, Ronaldo… and Windass: Our writers' favourite hat-tricks

Kylian Mbappe reaffirmed his status as one of the world’s marquee players with a remarkable performance against Manchester City on Wednesday.

The Frenchman’s hat-trick was an exhibition of finishing and came on one of the sport’s grandest stages in Real Madrid’s Bernabeu, but it was also a reminder of just how thrilling a feat hat-tricks can be. In football, nothing rivals one.

We asked some of our writers to nominate their favourite hat-tricks from their time watching and covering the game. Check out our choices, then share yours in the comments below.

Lionel Messi, for Barcelona vs Arsenal, April 2010

I had witnessed Lionel Messi’s brilliance before this — his technique, his guile, his mesmerising ability in tight spaces — but this was off the scale. It was one of those games where he had me gasping in disbelief in the press box, trying and struggling to find the words to do justice to his performance.

A Champions League quarter-final tie hung in the balance after a 2-2 draw in London. Arsenal had come from two goals down in the first leg and then took a shock early lead through Nicklas Bendtner at the Camp Nou. For a short time, this was shaping into one of their greatest European nights.

And then Messi took over.

He looked angry that night, a man on a mission. It was Arsenal’s profound misfortune to be the team theoretically standing in his way.

His first goal was lashed home angrily from just outside the box and his second was a delightfully composed finish after seizing on a loose ball. He completed his hat-trick before half-time with one of those dinked/scooped finishes that became one of his many calling cards. Messi scored a fourth in the closing stages with what was a scruffy goal by his standards, but a classic by almost anyone else’s.


Messi chips in for his 2010 hat-trick against Arsenal (Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)

My match report from that night seems to have vanished into the ether, but I’ve managed to recover a few tweets that I think capture my sense of awe at the time.

It only increased in the years that followed.

Oliver Kay

Kylian Mbappe, for France vs Argentina, December 2022

In the 2022 World Cup final, it looked like defending champions France were about to meekly give up their crown. Argentina had been leading 2-0 since the first half and were in total control until Kylian Mbappe scored a penalty with less than 10 minutes of the 90 remaining.

Sixty seconds later, Mbappe equalised with a stunning right-footed volley following a slick one-two with Marcus Thuram.

The French journalist who was sitting next to me in Qatar’s Lusail Stadium quickly went from being slumped in his seat with his head in his hands to crying tears of joy.

While his attacking team-mates Antoine Griezmann and Ousmane Dembele were ineffective, Mbappe was a one-man whirlwind Argentina’s defence could not contain.

Lionel Messi put Argentina back in front in extra time, but Mbappe dragged France level again with another penalty. At the time, those two were team-mates at Paris Saint-Germain. It felt like we were watching the next global icon ruthlessly destroy the dreams of his predecessor.

In the end, Messi had the last laugh and lifted the trophy as Argentina captain after he and Mbappe both scored again in the penalty shootout.

Mbappe deserved to be on the winning side but had to make do with his own small piece of history by becoming only the second player, after England’s Geoff Hurst in 1966, to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final.

Jay Harris

Michael Owen, for England vs Germany, September 2001

Earlier that Saturday, I’d been wandering around Munich and happened to turn the wrong corner at precisely the wrong time: England fans were singing 10 German Bombers outside a bar and as a couple of locals walked by a bottle was in the air, arcing above my head and smashing into a shop window. Suddenly, fists were flying (and I was running).

I can vividly remember how furious I felt. I wanted England to get hammered that night. I wanted them (us) to be humiliated. To feel shame.

A few hours later, I was dancing in the press box at the Olympic Stadium, on my feet and laughing, in the company of grizzled hacks whose usual emotional range stretched from grunt to sneer.

The cause of this lapse of decorum? Germany 1 England 5. A reversal of everything we thought we knew, a demolition job by a team that specialised in self-demolition against a team that had only ever lost one World Cup qualifier at home until that night and had always been our nemesis. It was astonishing, unbelievable, hilarious and improbable, doubly so given Germany had scored first.

But there was Michael Owen, hooking in an equaliser on the volley, Steven Gerrard firing one in from long range, then two more for Owen and a cake-topper from Emile Heskey. Owen was cold-blooded, quick, ruthless, unstoppable, and the scorer of the most remarkable English hat-trick since Geoff Hurst in the 1966 World Cup final.

George Caulkin


Michael Owen hooks in for England on a memorable night in Munich (Ross Kinnaird /Allsport)

Gareth Bale, for Tottenham vs Inter, October 2010

For Gareth Bale, it was the night that changed his career and, in his own words, “when everyone got to know me as a player”.

Inter were the reigning European champions. Bale was 21 years old. As for Tottenham, they were losing 4-0 at half-time at San Siro and down to 10 men. In other words, the stage was hardly set for anyone in a Spurs shirt to score one of the great Champions League hat-tricks.

Bale, however, was on a mission. Shortly after the interval, he picked up the ball inside the Inter half, sprinted between Javier Zanetti and Maicon, outpaced Lucio and drilled an angled left-footed shot inside the far post. He outpaced Zanetti again before scoring his second, which was an almost identical finish — hard and low across goalkeeper Julio Cesar. As for the third, naturally, it ended up in the same place as the other two — the far corner via the Welshman’s left boot.

It was an astonishing individual performance from Bale and, as he proved against the same opponents the following month, no fluke. Indeed, he never looked back. Maicon? He never recovered.

Stuart James

Danny Butterfield, for Crystal Palace v Wolves, February 2010

Crystal Palace were in dire straits on February 2, 2010. Then a Championship club, they had fallen into administration and, financially stricken with the winter transfer window having closed the previous evening, were desperate to progress through a replay with Premier League visitors Wolves and into a televised FA Cup last-16 tie. That would guarantee at least £330,000 ($420,000 at the current exchange rate) in income to keep the lights on.

But, having just sold star forward Victor Moses to Wigan on deadline day, Palace had no striker to partner Alan Lee. Step forward, Danny Butterfield.

The 30-year-old was a club stalwart, but a right-back by trade. He had scored six times in 240 Palace appearances, with his most recent goal coming over a year earlier. The last time he’d played up front was at under-12s level. But Palace manager Neil Warnock’s wife, Sharon, had a dream that a right-back would score the winner and Butterfield “had been lively in training”.

So he began the match as a striker and, in six second-half minutes, ran riot. He nodded the home side into the lead, scuffed a second in with his right foot and added a third with his left as Palace won, 3-1.

Scrappy? Yes. But still a perfect hat-trick to savour. Not least as Butterfield played another six years of first-team football and never scored another goal.

Dominic Fifield

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GO DEEPER

‘It’s what I’ll get remembered for, but it’s not me. It’s unrealistic’ — Danny Butterfield on his perfect hat-trick

Ronaldo, for Real Madrid vs Manchester United, April 2003

It doesn’t get much bigger than a Champions League quarter-final between these two giants of the sport. And, boy, Ronaldo lived up to his billing that night as arguably the most exciting and dynamic striker in the business.

And yet, it is not actually the goals that provide the starkest memory, more the reaction when the Brazilian was substituted to a standing ovation. The crowd at Old Trafford knew this was genuine greatness. It needed something of that level to deny Sir Alex Ferguson’s men because United were a brilliant side in their own right.

So, when the substitutes’ board went up to signal Ronaldo was going off, with Madrid 6-3 up on aggregate and 23 minutes of the 90 to go, the reaction was instinctive and unanimous and born from the knowledge that, quite simply, you don’t see these acts of genius very often.


(Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)

All four sides of the ground rose to applaud him and you could see from the way Ronaldo was looking around that he could not quite believe the opposition fans would react this way.

The three goals? They weren’t too shabby, let’s put it that way, even if Fabien Barthez’s team-mates might have hoped United’s goalkeeper would not be beaten twice in one night from 20 yards. Madrid went on to meet Juventus in the semi-finals and Ronaldo went down in history as one of the greatest opponents Old Trafford has ever seen.

Daniel Taylor

Dennis Bergkamp, for Arsenal vs Leicester, August 1997

You’ve all seen that Dennis Bergkamp goal for the Netherlands against Argentina in the 1998 World Cup quarter-finals, right? Hopefully with the Dutch commentary, which adds to the sense of hysterical wonder.

Well, if some people watched it and thought, ‘Hey, I’ve seen that goal before somewhere’, they were right.

Bergkamp himself scored a goal born out of similarly exquisite touch and imagination less than a year earlier at Leicester’s old Filbert Street home. Just in case one of the most delightfully executed Premier League goals of all time was not enough for one evening, it happened to complete a hat-trick — in second-half stoppage time.


Dennis Bergkamp scores his brilliant third for Arsenal at Leicester (Mark Thompson /Allsport)

His first that night was stunning enough, picking up a short corner to bend ferociously into the far corner. The second was routine compared to everything else he did in the game — nicking the ball into space before flicking over the goalkeeper. The third was quintessential Bergkamp in his pomp, all about the quality of his touch and the brain that computed exactly what to do before his marker could figure out what day it was.

It was a goal good enough to win a thousand games. However, ridiculously, Arsenal then allowed Leicester to scramble an equaliser, so it wasn’t even a winner. He would be entitled to be annoyed with that.

At the time, Bergkamp was playing with such mastery that it was not even such a surprise when the BBC’s flagship highlights show Match of the Day decided to award him a rare 1-2-3 in its Goal of the Month competition. The best two of his Leicester goals made it, and seeing as one of them was only average, they found another great goal of his three from that August to make up the numbers.

Perfect.

Amy Lawrence

Rivaldo, for Barcelona vs Valencia, June 2001

With respect to my colleagues, please ignore the other entries here. On June 17, 2001, Rivaldo scored the greatest hat-trick of all time.

That night, Rivaldo’s Barcelona had to beat Valencia at Camp Nou to steal a Champions League place from them by virtue of their superior head-to-head record that season.

His opener — a free kick almost dead centre, just over 30 yards from Santiago Canizares’ goal — evaded a six-man wall jumping in hopeful unison, dipping into the bottom-right corner, off the post.

Valencia pulled level.

Then Rivaldo received a square pass, on almost the same patch of grass from which he’d scored his first. After an emphatic dummy to send Kily Gonzalez spinning 360 degrees, Rivaldo threw his entire body into a brutal, low, daisy-annihilating shot and, thanks to his own sheer torque, left the ground and landed on his backside. The ball had already screamed past Canizares.


Rivaldo laid waste to Valencia in 2001 (Christophe Simon/AFP via Getty Images)

Then, with 90 seconds left on the clock — after Valencia had equalised again — Frank de Boer chipped the ball to Rivaldo on the edge of the box, Barcelona’s Cruyffian approximation of sticking it in the mixer.

After his chested first touch sent the ball 12 feet into the air, he launched into a cinematic masterpiece of this particular goalscoring sub-genre — no suspicion of contact with the shin, no panicked hitch-kick, no cartoonish loop to the trajectory, no danger of the referee calling it dangerous play.

Rivaldo produced not just the greatest hat-trick of all time that day and not just, as UK newspaper The Observer declared it, “the most gloriously implausible hat-trick anyone has ever scored in a top-class game”. It was (narratively, at least, given Rivaldo found no use for his head or his right boot in the process) the most perfectly formed hat-trick ever seen. Its goals came in the third, 45th and 89th minutes.

Adam Hurrey

Dean Windass, for Bradford City vs Derby, April 2000

Desperate times call for desperate measures and with Bradford hovering over the Premier League relegation trapdoor, manager Paul Jewell chose the ‘must-win’ Good Friday six-pointer with Derby to go full Tropic Thunder.

Or so it seemed, as their central defensive lynchpin David Wetherall was shunted up front to start alongside Robbie Blake, with top scorer Dean Windass shifted into midfield.

Within 20 seconds of the match kicking off, Derby were ahead. Six minutes later, it was 2-0 as a back line shorn of the ever-dependable Wetherall collapsed. By half-time, however, Jewell had been vindicated — Bradford led 4-3 and Windass had scored a hat-trick.

His first came from a Wetherall knock-down, while the lead-up to the second — a fizzing 30-yard shot — saw the defender-turned-striker’s mere presence next to Steve Elliott force a poor clearing header from the Derby defender.

Jim Smith’s side eventually rescued a point from a 4-4 draw that saw referee Alan Wilkie award four penalties, three to the visitors, and send a Derby player off. But the day still belonged to Windass, especially as his hat-trick proved to be the launchpad to a quite remarkable ‘Great Escape’ as Bradford won three of their remaining four games to stay up.

Richard Sutcliffe

Luis Suarez, for Liverpool vs Norwich, December 2013

This was not only an iconic hat-trick (actually, four goals), it was entirely predictable.

Luis Suarez’s love affair with facing Norwich had already brought him two trebles in four previous meetings — both at Carrow Road and against goalkeeper John Ruddy. One of those goals came from just inside Norwich’s half.

But his third and final time facing Norwich at Anfield saw Suarez catch fire.

Suarez got going with an audacious, dipping 40-yard effort, before his second showed determination to beat his marker and fire Philippe Coutinho’s corner high into the net, with a finish of high technical quality.

But the third was the pick of the litter as Suarez dazzled and danced through a bewildered, beleaguered defence. He then flicked the ball beyond Leroy Fer before waiting an extra beat for it to bounce and drilling an incredible shot on the rise into the far corner.

A 20-minute first-half hat-trick even allowed time for a fourth as he curled a delicious free kick inside Ruddy’s near post. The goalkeeper’s dive to try to save it was a captivating exercise in futility.

That intoxicating first half will forever be at the heart of Suarez’s impact at Anfield.

Michael Bailey

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GO DEEPER

Golden Games: No 23, Luis Suarez for Liverpool v Norwich

Lucas Moura, for Tottenham vs Ajax, May 2019

There will be very few entries on this list that meant more than this one and surely none that were as dramatic. Lucas Moura’s hat-trick in Amsterdam on May 8, 2019, is one of modern football’s greatest stories.

At half-time in the second leg of their Champions League semi-final against visitors Tottenham, Ajax were 3-0 up on aggregate, cruising to the final. Spurs’ European journey, including a shocking and hugely dramatic 4-3 win against Manchester City on away goals in the previous round, had run out of steam.

And then Lucas willed it otherwise.

Ten minutes after the restart, he scored his first on the break after winning the ball himself on the halfway line and storming forward. Three minutes later, Lucas was the only cool head in a busy penalty area to score a second. And then with the game’s last kick, he received Dele Alli’s flick and buried his third from the edge of the box. That made it 3-3 on aggregate and Spurs were again through on the since-scrapped away goals rule.

The Ajax players collapsed to the floor, their dreams shattered. The Tottenham team and staff were ecstatic, in tears, unable to process what they had just seen.

go-deeper

GO DEEPER

Tottenham’s Ajax miracle: the stories you’ve never heard before

Jack Pitt-Brooke


Lucas Moura celebrates his hat-trick at Ajax (Dan Mullan/Getty Images )

Ademola Lookman, for Atalanta vs Bayer Leverkusen, May 2024

“His first two goals were for his club, but the third was for the streets.”

Those words, spoken by TNT Sports pundit Joe Cole, are my abiding memory of Ademola Lookman’s hat-trick for Atalanta in last season’s Europa League final. The opponents were significant — Bayer Leverkusen hadn’t lost a game all season in any competition and were on course for a historic invincible treble.

But Lookman was in such a flow state in Dublin that evening that every trick came off; every position taken up was optimal. So it was no surprise when he crept in at the back post, unmarked, to open the scoring with a precise jab.

A goal scored after a nutmeg is a humbling experience for the victim, so when Granit Xhaka saw the ball slide between his legs after a Lookman shimmy, he would have feared the worst. The ball was in the back of his net before he could even turn around, Lookman generating ridiculous power with his instep to slot it into the bottom corner.

If Leverkusen were on the ropes at that point, the knockout blow came in the second half. There was to be no usual comeback, no late flurry, from Xavi Alonso’s side this time.

One-v-one, Lookman had his prey exactly where he wanted him, weary and backpedalling. One touch, stepover, bang. It was emphatic as much as it was significant as Atalanta won their first major trophy in 61 years.

Instinct, bravery, skill — all attributes honed in the caged-in pitches of south London, where the now Nigeria international was born and raised.

Crazy, really, that this was only nine months ago. A reminder of Lookman’s importance to Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini, if ever he needed it.

Richard Amofa

(Top photos: Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi; Getty Images)



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