The 10 players with the most hat-tricks in the 21st century: Messi, Ronaldo…
Former Barcelona, Real Madrid and Liverpool stars are among the 10 players with the most career hat-tricks in the 21st century.
Most players are lucky if they score just one hat-trick in their entire career, but in order to make the cut for this list, you need a minimum of 18 hat-tricks to your name.
Using stats from Transfermarkt, here are the 10 players with the most hat-tricks in the 21st century for club and country.
Note: hat-tricks have only been counted when a player is active in a top 15 league.
=8. Sergio Aguero – 18
The Argentine legend holds the record for the most Premier League hat-tricks with 12, although a certain Norwegian forward is rapidly chasing down that record.
For club and country, Aguero bagged a total of 18 career hat-tricks, with the majority of them coming during his time in England.
=8. Klaas-Jan Huntelaar – 18
Perhaps one of the most underrated strikers of his generation, Huntelaar averaged 0.55 goals per game throughout his career.
He enjoyed his peak years with Ajax and Schalke and bagged a whopping 18 career hat-tricks in total.
=8. Mario Gomez – 18
Of the 18 hat-tricks that Gomez stuck away throughout his career, 13 of them came in the Bundesliga.
The former Bayern Munich forward was a force to be reckoned with during his prime. Throughout his time at the Allianz Arena, he scored 113 goals in just 174 appearances for the club.
7. Kylian Mbappe – 19
With a hat-trick in the 2022 World Cup final, Mbappe arguably has the most iconic hat-trick on this entire list. Despite being on the losing side that day, the Frenchman couldn’t have done much more for his country.
Given he won six consecutive Ligue 1 Golden Boot awards while at PSG, it’s no surprise that he banged in plenty of hat-tricks along the way.
He’s still yet to score a hat-trick for Real Madrid, but it’s surely only a matter of time before he does.
=5. Harry Kane – 24
Kane has already scored six hat-tricks during his time with Bayern Munich, with his latest coming against Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League.
“I keep all the balls after hat-tricks,” Kane told reporters after scoring his 24th career hat-trick. “The lads might be sick of signing them, but keep them coming.”
In Bayern colours, he’s averaging a goal every 86 minutes and we wouldn’t be surprised if he manages to climb this list by a few places come the end of the season.
=5. Erling Haaland – 24
The Manchester City forward is now only five hat-tricks away from breaking the all-time Premier League hat-trick record which is currently held by Aguero.
Haaland started the 2024-25 campaign with a bang as he scored consecutive hat-tricks against Ipswich Town and West Ham United in the league.
By the time he eventually retires, we wouldn’t be surprised if he manages to top this list.
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4. Luis Suarez – 29
Capable of scoring almost any type of goal, Suarez was an absolute phenomenon during his prime and he’s still slotting goals away for Inter Miami today, aged 37.
The Uruguayan forward had the best scoring season of his career in 2015-16 as he scored a whopping 59 goals across all competitions for Barcelona. During that season alone, he scored seven hat-tricks.
3. Robert Lewandowski – 33
Lewandowski’s longevity at the top of the game needs to be studied. This is someone who started their professional career back in 2005 and is still playing at the highest level today.
The 36-year-old recently scored his 33rd career hat-trick against Alaves where it only took him 32 minutes to score his third goal of the game.
Since his arrival in La Liga, no player has scored more goals than the Barcelona star.
READ: The incredible La Liga top scorers chart since Robert Lewandowski made his Barcelona debut
2. Lionel Messi – 57
Messi’s most prolific season came in 2011-12 as he scored 73 goals across all competitions for Barcelona. During that campaign alone, he stuck away eight hat-tricks by himself.
We could happily sit and watch Messi’s goal catalogue all day long and while he’s the GOAT for many, he has been pipped to the top spot on this list.
1. Cristiano Ronaldo – 60
Even when disregarding the goals that Ronaldo has scored during his time with Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia, he still manages to top this list.
The 39-year-old is arguably the greatest goalscorer in football history and with his sights firmly fixed on reaching 1000 goals, he doesn’t plan on retiring any time soon either.
Unsurprisingly, he scored the bulk of his hat-tricks with Real Madrid where he scored a total of 34. That’s an average of 3.7 hat-tricks per season during his time in Spain.