Highlights
- Erling Haaland, Dimitar Berbatov, and Michael Owen managed to score multiple hat-tricks in the Premier League, a feat that few have achieved on mass since 1992.
- Scoring a hat-trick in a single game is no easy task, but these players make it look effortless, showcasing their exceptional goal-scoring abilities.
- The article explores the top goal-scorers in the history of the Premier League, highlighting players like Ian Wright, Raheem Sterling, and Robin van Persie who have scored multiple hat-tricks throughout their careers.
History was made in the Premier League over the weekend when Erling Haaland, Heung-Min Son and Evan Ferguson all scored a hat-trick on the same day. It’s the first time since 1995 that this has happened, and only the second time in league history for a hat-trick of hat-tricks to have happened.
It’s no easy task scoring three goals in a single game. Some players go their whole careers without even scoring one goal at all! But these are the men who make putting the ball in the back of the net three times in one game look as easy as a jigsaw with two pieces.
Join GIVEMESPORT as we look at this elusive list of talent who have scored the most hat-tricks in the history of the Premier League.
15 Ian Wright – 5
Breaking on to the scene with Crystal Palace’s 1988/1989 season that saw 'The Eagles' get promoted to the first division, it was only a matter of time before one of the big boys came in for a young Ian Wright. Arsenal were the lucky ones in 1991, and with the creation of the Premier League coinciding with Ian entering his prime, defenders across England had a real problem on their hands.
Two hat-tricks in the space of a fortnight in March 1994 were followed by a further three during his time in an Arsenal shirt before his departure in 1998, and while he did have a cup of coffee at West Ham, five Premier League match balls is what he finished on.
14 Raheem Sterling – 5
Somehow, whether it’s through some sort of weird chemistry or a surgery that only footballers are allowed access to, Raheem Sterling is only 28, even though it feels like he’s been in the Premier League for 28 years.
After becoming a teenage sensation at Liverpool, Manchester City swooped in with a boatload of money that looks like pennies nowadays given how important Sterling was to Pep Guardiola’s side. With five hat-tricks for 'The Cityzens', including a perfect one against Norwich in 2022, Raheem The Dream has age on his side as he could very well climb this list as a regular starter for Chelsea.
13 Robin van Persie – 5
The first entrant on the list to have scored hat-tricks for two different clubs, and he won’t be the last. It always felt like RVP was destined for big things given that Arsenal brought him to Highbury in 2004, but never seemed to hit his stride and become 'The Gunners’' main talisman.
However, in 2011, Robin van Persie became a menace to society, scoring goals as if his life depended on it. With 49 league goals and three hat-tricks for Arsenal, it was off to Manchester United to bag two more match balls, his only Premier League title, and a legacy in London and Manchester that will live on for decades to come.
12 Ruud van Nistelrooy – 5
Speaking of a Dutchman who created a legacy in Manchester, defenders didn’t have a clue how to deal with Ruud van Nistelrooy when he joined 'The Red Devils' in 2001. He had ripped apart defences in the Netherlands for many years, but his prime years were spent bagging goal after goal at Old Trafford.
Ruud finished his Man United career with 150 goals in all competitions, with 95 of those coming in the Premier League. He bagged himself five hat-tricks including three coming in a span of a single campaign, so it’s no wonder that Real Madrid wanted his services in 2006.
11 Andy Cole – 5
To think in the early 1990s, Arsenal could have had both Ian Wright and Andy Cole up front for them if they were just a little more patient. Okay, 'The Gunners' didn’t know what Cole would turn out to be, but there are certainly some scouts in North London looking at their work like Marlon Brando screaming ‘Look how they massacred my boy!’
It took less than two seasons for Man United to cherry-pick Andy from Newcastle in 1995, who had already scored two hat-tricks from 'The Magpies' by that point. He added three more to his collection in the form of five goals in United’s legendary 9-0 win over Ipswich, a 1997 match ball against Barnsley, and his final Premier League hat-trick coming in the form of four goals in 1999 against, who else, but his form club Newcastle.
10 Dimitar Berbatov – 5
Would you look at that, another Man United player who has scored five Premier League hat-tricks! Yes, one of them was for Tottenham in 2007, scoring four goals against a struggling Reading, but some of 'Berba’s' escapades at Old Trafford were legendary.
The Bulgarian slotted five past Blackburn Rovers in 2010, as well as two hat-tricks against Birmingham and Wigan in 2011, but it’s his first Man United trilogy against Liverpool at Old Trafford that 'Red Devil' fans still talk about to this day.
9 Erling Haaland – 5
You knew he was going to show up at some point, he’s only been in the league for 15 minutes and has already scored 15 goals since you started reading this entry! The treble-winning season for Manchester City wouldn’t have been possible had it not been for the big Norwegian scoring goals as if the ball was Roy Keane’s head.
A total of four hat-tricks in his debut Premier League campaign, with his fifth coming on the aforementioned day of himself, Son and Ferguson all stealing the show for their respective teams. We may have said that Sterling could climb this list, but Haaland will, and he will climb very high.
8 Luis Suárez – 6
When Luis Suárez joined Barcelona from Liverpool in the summer of 2014, two places in the world couldn’t wait for the move to be completed. One of them was Barcelona, and the other one was Norwich because three of Suarez’s six Liverpool hat-tricks came against 'The Canaries.'
The Uruguayan put a total of ten goals past Norwich during his time at Anfield, as well as hat-tricks against Wigan, West Brom and Cardiff City. His time in England might have been controversial, but there has never been a man who struck more fear into an entire city like Luis Alberto Suarez Diaz.
7 Wayne Rooney – 7
The seventh place on the list scored seven Premier League hat-tricks, that is the kind of satisfaction you can only get from seeing the DVD logo directly hit the corner of the screen. However, 'Wazza' did leave it late on to bag his seventh hat-trick.
He famously slotted three goals past Fenerbahce on his Man United debut in 2004 but didn’t score a Premier League hat-trick until two years later. Rooney went on to six trilogies in a Man United shirt in the league, before waiting until 2017 to finally bag a match ball playing for Everton, a full 13 years after he left the club.
6 Michael Owen – 8
While arguably known more for being a pundit with more than his fair share of critics and less for being a Ballon d’Or winning goal machine who was once the most feared striker in Europe, Michael Owen features next in this list.
The Chester-born striker scored 158 goals for Liverpool, which included seven hat-tricks in the Premier League between 1998 and 2003. He, like most people from England when they’re sick of the weather, jetted off to Real Madrid for a year, before joining Newcastle United in 2005 and bagging his eighth and final EPL match ball in December of that year.
5 Harry Kane – 8
Now that Harold is playing his football in the Bundesliga, this might just be Harry Kane’s final total of Premier League hat-tricks, which is a great thing for everyone still to come on the list because the England captain was coming for that top spot.
Bursting on to the scene in 2015, the Tottenham forward made Premier League defenders wish they were coming face-to-face with Kane from WWE instead of Kane from Walthamstow. Eight Premier League hat-tricks to his name, which included two instances of him taking home the match ball twice in the same week.
4 Thierry Henry – 8
He didn’t get that statue outside the Emirates Stadium for nothing. Signing for Arsenal in 1999 and becoming arguably the most important player in Arsene Wegner’s side until his departure eight years later, 'Titi' simply couldn’t be stopped on his day.
From scoring seven Premier League goals in the span of seven days during Arsenal’s road to becoming ‘The Invincibles,’ to scoring the final three goals that were ever scored at Highbury, had injuries not gotten in the way of his final season at Arsenal, Henry would have easily had a podium finish.
3 Robbie Fowler – 9
Despite the talents and achievements of the previous entries on this list, it would be sacrilege to not have God in the top three. Robbie Fowler treated the Premier League like his own personal playground in the mid-90s, winning the PFA Young Player of the Year award in both 1995 and 1996.
But Fowler’s hat-tricks were spread out across his eight years at Liverpool, with his trilogies coming against teams up and down the league at different points in the season. Robbie bagged eight match balls for himself playing for 'The Reds,' becoming the first player to score three perfect hat-tricks, before scoring his ninth and final hat-trick for Leeds in 2001.
2 Alan Shearer – 11
Now we’re in to double digits, this is where things get serious, this is the part of the list where strikers score five hat-tricks in a single season for the sheer fun of it. That is something Alan Shearer did in the 1995/1996 season, which is why he is held in such high regard.
Despite playing in the Premier League until 2006, all 11 of Shearer’s hat-tricks came in the 1990s. However, his greatest performance was undoubtedly the five goals he scored for Newcastle against Sheffield Wednesday in 1999, which was fittingly his final hat-trick in the Premier League.
1 Sergio Aguero – 12
To put it bluntly, Manchester City wouldn’t have had half of the success they have in the last 10 years if it wasn’t for Sergio Aguero. He is the most prolific striker in the history of the club, has scored more goals than anyone else, and takes the top spot on this list.
With a staggering 12 hat-tricks against 10 different teams, one perfect hat-trick, two four-goal performances and a five-goal performance in 2015 across nine years, the man was simply a fantasy football manager’s wet dream. Haaland might be creeping up on this record, but he’s still got a long way to go before reaches the level of Kun Aguero.