What is a hat trick in soccer?

A “hat trick” means scoring three goals in the same game, but this term carries a lot more weight for soccer players. Only a select few players have pulled off this deceptively difficult feat, which requires, among other factors, determination. That’s certainly a quality that Trinity Rodman boasts in spades.

Trinity Rodman

© Wolfgang Zac / The Red Bulletin

“I realized that soccer was going to be my thing when I couldn’t accept that people could play a sport just for fun,” Rodman said. “I was like, ‘No way they’re just playing soccer just to have fun.’ I think at a young age, I was just like, ‘Can we score? What are we doing?’ I knew that my heart was in the game, and I wanted to push myself as far as I could go.”

Keep reading to learn all about the hat trick in soccer and why it matters.

The origin of the term “hat trick”

What does scoring a triple goal in soccer have to do with hats and tricks? The answer comes from another sport: cricket. In the late 19th century, cricket clubs would present a hat to a bowler who successfully took three wickets during a match. Since a hat was given to celebrate the “trick” of this three-goal scoring achievement, the term “hat trick” was born.

Not long after the term “hat trick” became popular in cricket, it made its way to soccer. On March 2, 1878, soccer player John McDougall, representing Scotland, scored one goal each in the seventh, 41st, and 50th minutes against England. In doing so, he secured the first recorded hat trick in soccer history.

Types of hat tricks

Classic hat trick

When someone asks “what is three goals in soccer called?” without specifying how and when these goals are scored, they’re asking about a classic hat trick. Any scoring of three goals in a game is a classic hat trick.

Across the 2020 and 2024 world stage, Zambian soccer superstar Barbra Banda scored a classic hat trick three different times. Banda holds the record for the most hat tricks on the world stage in women’s soccer, with Brazilian legend Cristiane in second place with hat tricks at the 2004 and 2008 games.

Natural hat trick

When an athlete scores three goals in soccer without another player scoring in between these goals, that’s a natural hat trick. In 2023, during a University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs game against the University of Minnesota-Crookston Golden Eagles, Bulldogs forward Anna Tobias achieved a natural hat trick in 1:08. In doing so, Tobias set the NCAA DII Women’s Soccer record for fastest hat trick.

Perfect hat trick

A perfect hat trick is a soccer match milestone in which a player scores one goal with their right foot, another with their left foot, and another with their head. In April 2024, Chelsea FC’s Cole Palmer scored a left-footed goal in the 13th minute, then a headed goal in the 18th minute, and a right-footed goal in the 29th minute. In doing so, Palmer set the Premier League’s record for earliest-achieved perfect hat trick in a game.

Notable hat tricks in soccer history

Perhaps the most talked-about hat trick of all time is Geoff Hurst’s perfect hat trick on July 30, 1966. During England’s match against West Germany in that year’s World Cup final, Hurst scored a perfect hat trick.

Another much-discussed hat trick is Sadio Mané’s record-setting three goals in a May 2015 Premier League match. Playing for Southampton against Aston Villa, Mané scored three goals within two minutes and 56 seconds in the 13th, 14th, and 16th minutes. To date, Mané’s hat trick is the earliest of all time; Palmer’s 2024 perfect hat trick is sixth-earliest across all types of hat tricks. By comparison, the second-earliest hat trick of all time, by Dwight Yorke, occurred in the 22nd minute in a February 2001 match.

There’s also something to be said for the timespan in which a soccer player pulls off their hat trick. Although Brazilian soccer star Neymar da Silva Santos Jr. completed his hat trick in a 2016 UEFA match for Barcelona against Scotland in the 58th minute, his first goal was in the 44th minute. This timing means that Santos completed his hat trick in under 15 minutes, which is remarkably fast for a hat trick at any point in a soccer match, though Mané’s hat trick occurred within three minutes.

The significance of hat tricks in women’s soccer

Women have set plenty of jaw-dropping hat trick records. In the 2015 Women’s World Cup final, USWNT player Carli Lloyd scored two goals within the first two minutes and 15 seconds against Japan. Lloyd scored a third goal within the match’s first 16 minutes, meaning that she had achieved a hat trick within 14 minutes. This accomplishment made Lloyd the first athlete to land a hat trick in a Women’s World Cup final.

During the 2019 United States game against Thailand, USWNT forward Alex Morgan did so much more than complete a hat trick. Yes, Morgan did indeed complete a hat trick in the 74th minute. Thereafter, though, she scored two more goals for a staggering total of five goals. USWNT ultimately beat Thailand 13-0, a complete shutout.

Throughout the past decade, women have continued setting hat trick records. In 2024, University of Oklahoma Sooners forward Ella Pappas achieved the team’s sixth-ever hat trick with goals in the 10th, 46th, and 51st minutes. In 2017, as midfielder for the Colorado College Tigers, Lauren Milliet nabbed a hat trick in a 4-1 game against the University of South Dakota Coyotes.

Hat tricks aren’t everything

Erling Haaland

© Markus Berger / Red Bull Content Pool

A big reason why hat tricks are so celebrated is that they’re relatively uncommon, but for a rare few soccer players, hat tricks are just another day on the field. In particular, Norwegian striker Erling Haaland is known as a hat trick hero. In a November 2024 Norway game against Kazakhstan, Haaland achieved his 25th hat trick, making him the rare soccer player with more hat tricks than his age; Haaland was 24 years old when he pulled off this feat.

Haaland is the exception to the rule.

A hat trick is a dazzling goal-scoring feat, but many all-time greats and fast-rising stars have never completed one.

Take Jaedyn Shaw as an example. An attacking midfielder for the NWSL team San Diego Wave FC, Shaw has yet to achieve a hat trick, but there’s another staggering record in her name. In June 2024, Shaw set the record for most NWSL goals scored by a teenager, reaching 13 goals total at age 19.

Trinity Rodman, another young soccer superstar, previously set this record as well as some others. Rodman was formerly the youngest player drafted to the NWSL (she joined the Washington Spirit), and in her first year at age 18, she scored seven goals and earned NWSL Rookie of the Year, All-League, and U.S. Young Player of the Year. Now, after just four seasons with the Spirit, Rodman has scored a total of 24 goals, not to mention 78 shots on target.

Rodman and Shaw’s impressive stats show that soccer players without hat tricks under their belts are still massive talents.

Hat tricks: an exciting, but quite rare, soccer feat

Completing a hat trick ensures that a soccer player’s legacy is preserved in amber, and so do many other accomplishments. From Rodman’s NWSL goal and drafting records to Shaw’s shattering of that same goal record, markers of excellence exist well beyond hat tricks.

Source: https://www.redbull.com/us-en/what-is-a-hat-trick-in-soccer