Hattrick

A hattrick occurs in football (soccer) when a player has scored three goals in a single game. In common with other official record-keeping rules, goals in a penalty shootout are excluded from the tally.

Jimmy O'Connor who played for Shelbourne in Ireland has the quickest hat trick in history, scoring three goals in 2min 13sec.

There are several variations of the definition, including the "Flawless (or German)" hat-trick, which differs in that the three goals must be scored consecutively and within one period of play. Another variation is the "Perfect" or "Golden" hat-trick, in which the three goals are scored with the player's right foot, left foot and head. It has become traditional for the scorer of a hat-trick to claim the match ball as a personal souvenir of the feat.

James Hayter holds the record for the fastest English Football League hat-trick coming on as an 84th minute substitute for A.F.C. Bournemouth against Wrexham A.F.C. netting 3 goals in less than 140 seconds. Robbie Fowler currently holds the fastest hat-trick in Premiership history by scoring 3 goals within 4 minutes and 33 seconds for Liverpool against Arsenal in 1994. Nigel Clough scored a hat-trick in exactly 4 minutes in the old First Division (the highest league in English football before the advent of the Premier League) for Nottingham Forest against Queens Park Rangers in the 1987/88 season. On 4 September 1950, Blackpool's George McKnight scored a hat-trick against Fulham "in under four minutes".

The fastest hat trick in the history of Major League Soccer belongs to Harut Karapetyan (then of the Los Angeles Galaxy), who completed it in roughly five minutes in a June 1998 match against the Dallas Burn. The Galaxy won the match 8–1.

In World Cups American Bert Patenaude scored the first hat-trick in the 1930 inaugural. Sandor Kocsis (1954), Just Fontaine (1958) and Gerd Müller (1970) scored two hat-tricks in the same World Cup. Gabriel Batistuta scored hat-tricks in two World Cups (1994 and 1998) Geoff Hurst scored a hat-trick in the 1966 Final – the only one in a Final. At least one hat-trick has been scored in every World Cup Finals except the 2006 tournament.

Seven players have scored a hat-trick in the UEFA European Football Championship. Of those seven, Michel Platini is the only player to have scored two hat-tricks (against Belgium and Yugoslavia), both in the group stage of Euro 1984. David Villa scored a hat trick at the Euro 2008 competition in Austria and Switzerland for Spain against group rivals Russia, a game which Spain won 4–1.

Dennis Bergkamp scored a memorable hat trick against Leicester City in September 1997. The hat trick of goals were the top three in the Match of the Day Goal of the Month competition for that month; a unique achievement.

Jermain Defoe of Tottenham Hotspur scored a hat trick in just seven minutes during the second half of a game against Wigan on November 22, 2009. He then went on to score a further two goals in the game, a total of five in just thirty-six minutes, only the third time a player has scored five goals since the English Premier League was introduced in 1992.

On March 2010 Bryan Ruiz of FC Twente made one of the quickest hat tricks ever against Sparta Rotterdam, with goals in the 46th, 49th (pen) and 50th minutes.

On 17 June 2010 Gonzalo Higuaín scored 3 goals for Argentina in their 2010 World Cup match against South Korea.