Scoring a Premier League hat-trick is no mean feat. But there have been a handful of players who have mastered the art over the years.
Most took their time to reach the hugely impressive milestone of scoring three hat-tricks in the Premier League, but that hasn’t been the case for everyone…
Here are the 5 quickest players to score three Premier League hat-tricks:
5. Andy Cole – 65 games
Andy Cole boasted a sensational record in front of goal, with the striker bagging 187 goals from 414 Premier League games. Plenty of top-flight teams were fortunate enough to have the forward among their ranks once upon a time.
He took 65 games to score three Premier League hat-tricks, scoring five in total across a six-year period. The first arrived for Newcastle against Liverpool in 1993, with the fifth coming for Manchester United in 1999, ironically against Newcastle.
But both the Reds Devils and the Magpies will remember him fondly, with Cole scoring 121 goals for the former, and 68 for the latter. Those 68 strikes arrived in just 84 matches in what was a phenomenal spell in the northeast.
4. Fernando Torres – 64 games
Spanish hitman Fernando Torres netted four sublime hat-tricks during his phenomenal spell in English football; three in the red of Liverpool and one in the blue of Chelsea. He would leave the country with a stunning total of 85 goals from 212 appearances.
His first hat-trick arrived in truly legendary fashion, with the Spaniard single-handedly securing all three points for Liverpool in a 3-2 victory over Middlesbrough in 2008. Another treble came against West Ham a month later, with his third and final Liverpool hat-trick coming against Hull City later that year.
He was forced to wait another three years before taking home another match ball, with the striker hitting three goals for Chelsea in a 6-1 win over QPR. No defender was safe when the lively Spaniard was on the prowl, with Torres’ best Premier League years undoubtedly coming in a Liverpool shirt.
3. Ruud van Nistelrooy – 59 games
Manchester United legend Ruud van Nistelrooy will be remembered very fondly by fans of the club, with the Dutch striker scoring plenty of hugely important and indeed iconic goals during his time at Old Trafford.
The formidable forward scored 95 goals in 150 matches, grabbing five hat-tricks along the way. Even more impressively, they arrived in the space of just two years, with his first coming in 2001 and his last coming in 2003.
Five different clubs – Southampton, Newcastle, Fulham, Charlton and Leicester – each fell victim to a superb hat-trick from the silky striker. He left Manchester a legend after a five-year spell, going on to shine for Spanish giants Real Madrid.
2. Michael Owen – 48 games
Former Liverpool hero Michael Owen was lethal in front of goal, and he showed this with his 150 Premier League goals. His efforts place him tenth in the all-time scoring charts. 118 of those came with the Reds, with 26 coming for Newcastle, five for Man United, and one for Stoke City.
It took the striker just 48 matches to net three hat-tricks, with the talented forward scoring eight Premier League hat-tricks in total. Seven of those came for the Merseyside outfit, with the other coming in the black and white stripes of Newcastle. He also scored a treble for the Red Devils, but this came in the Champions League against Wolfsburg.
Impressively, he achieved much of his goalscoring success as a teenager, with his three triples as a teenager still a record to this day. He is also the youngest player to score a Premier League hat-trick, taking home the match ball against Sheffield Wednesday in February 1998 aged 18 years and 62 days.
1. Erling Haaland – 8 games
Owen could be forgiven for thinking that his record may not be broken for some time, if ever, but a certain Erling Haaland has simply ripped the record to shreds. The Manchester City star has been utterly phenomenal since joining the Manchester outfit in the summer, breaking all sorts of records in a very short space of time.
The young Norwegian has already hit an astonishing 17 goals in his first 11 games for the club. This includes back-to-back league hat-tricks against Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest in August, with his third match ball of the season coming in Sunday’s Manchester Derby against rivals Man United.
His most recent triple saw him become the first player in Premier League history to score a hat-trick in three successive Premier League home matches. It’s been an incredible time in blue for the striker so far, with nobody quite sure just how many more records he will break in the years to come.
Who has Haaland joined on 3 Premier League hat-tricks?
As mentioned, Man City hero Haaland is massively enjoying his start to life in the Premier League. Not only has he broken the record for the quickest player to score three hat-tricks, but he now also finds himself tied with several iconic Premier League players on that total.
Man Utd legend Cristiano Ronaldo also has three Premier League hat-tricks to his name, as do the likes of former Chelsea men Didier Drogba and Romelu Lukaku. Icons such as Robbie Keane, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Nicolas Anelka and Emmanuel Adebayor are also on the list.
Premier League all-time greats Frank Lampard and Dion Dublin also have three hat-tricks each, along with current favourites Jamie Vardy and Son Heung-min.
Moreover, Haaland has overtaken the likes of Sadio Mane, Kevin Phillips, Eden Hazard and Gareth Bale, all of whom spent a considerable length of time playing in the top flight of English football.
It’s been a simply ridiculous season for Haaland so far, with the 22-year-old already on 14 league goals. It’s fair to say that, given the fact it is only the beginning of October, the Norwegian will ease past last year’s Golden Boot tally of 23, shared by Son and Mohamed Salah.
