World Cup hat trick notable stats: Who made history with Lionel Messi?

[ASFN Admin]

Scoring a World Cup goal is an incredible accomplishment. Something that players dream of.

Scoring two goals in a game, a brace, is even better.

Scoring a hat trick? THREE goals in a World Cup game? LEGENDARY.

That's what Lionel Messi did on Tuesday, June 16 when he scored all three of Argentina's goals in a 3-0 win over Algeria to open Group J play in the 2026 World Cup at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. It was a major first step toward defending the 2022 title.

With the performance, Messi has notched 16 goals across six World Cup tournaments. He tied Miroslav Klose of Germany for the most goals scored in the men's competition. Marta has the overall record with 17 goals.


Here are seven statistics about hat tricks in the men's World Cup:

• 55 - the total number of hat tricks that have happened in the men's World Cup.
• 8 - the most hat tricks in a single men's World Cup tournament, which happened at the 1954 tournament in Switzerland.
• 0 - the least amount of hat tricks in a men's World Cup tournament, which happened at the 2006 tournament in Germany.
• 2 - the number of World Cup tournaments that Gabriel "Batigol" Batistuta of Argentina scored a hat trick in: 1994 in the United States and 1998 in France. He's the only player to score three goals in a match in two different World Cups.
• 4 - the number of players who have scored a hat trick twice in the World Cup: Gabriel "Batigol" Batistuta of Argentina, Sándor Kocsis of Hungary, Just Fontaine of France and Gerd Müller of West Germany. No player has scored more than two hat tricks in the men's World Cup.
• 1 - player scored a hat trick as a substitute. Laszlo Kiss of Hungary came off the bench to contribute to a 10-1 smacking of El Salvador during the 1982 World Cup in Spain.
• 2 - players have scored a hat trick in the men's World Cup final. Geoff Hurst of England was the first to notch three goals in the 1966 final, a victory over West Germany. Kylian Mbappé then did so in the 2022 final for France in a loss to Argentina.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: World Cup hat trick facts after Lionel Messi made history

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