When Lionel Messi completed the first FIFA World Cup hat-trick of his storied career against Algeria earlier this week, the Argentine legend added another remarkable chapter to a record-breaking résumé.
Two days later, Canada’s Jonathan David followed with a three-goal performance against Qatar, becoming only the second player to score a hat-trick at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Their achievements have once again drawn attention to one of football’s rarest accomplishments on the sport’s biggest stage.
A Small and Exclusive Club
World Cup hat-tricks are far less common than many fans might assume.
Before the start of the 2026 tournament, only 54 hat-tricks had been recorded in the history of the FIFA World Cup, dating back to the inaugural competition in 1930.
Messi’s treble against Algeria became the 55th, while David’s performance for Canada became the 56th.
The first player to achieve the feat was American forward Bert Patenaude, who scored three goals against Paraguay during the 1930 World Cup in Uruguay.
Since then, hat-tricks have been produced by some of football’s greatest names, including Pelé, Gerd Müller, Gabriel Batistuta, Gary Lineker, Cristiano Ronaldo and Kylian Mbappé.
Messi’s Long-Awaited First
Despite entering the 2026 tournament as one of the greatest World Cup players in history, Messi had never previously scored three goals in a World Cup match.
That changed in Argentina’s opening 3-0 victory over Algeria, where the 38-year-old captain scored all three goals.
The performance also moved him level with Miroslav Klose’s all-time men’s World Cup scoring record of 16 goals.
For Messi, it was a milestone that had somehow remained missing despite appearances in six World Cups, a title in 2022, and multiple Golden Ball awards.
Jonathan David Makes Canadian History
Jonathan David’s hat-trick carried significance beyond personal achievement.
The Lille striker led Canada to a 6-0 victory over Qatar, helping the co-host nation secure its first-ever men’s World Cup finals win.
The performance instantly became one of the most important moments in Canadian football history.
David also became the first Canadian player to score a World Cup hat-trick and one of only a handful of players to achieve the feat while representing a host nation.
The Men Who Did It More Than Once
Scoring one World Cup hat-trick is difficult enough. Doing it twice is almost unheard of.
Only four players have managed multiple World Cup hat-tricks:
- Sándor Kocsis (Hungary)
- Just Fontaine (France)
- Gerd Müller (West Germany)
- Gabriel Batistuta (Argentina)
Batistuta remains unique because he scored hat-tricks in two different World Cup tournaments — against Greece in 1994 and Jamaica in 1998.
The Greatest Hat-Tricks in World Cup History
Two hat-tricks stand above all others because they came in the final itself.
England’s Geoff Hurst scored three goals against West Germany in the 1966 final, becoming the first player ever to net a hat-trick in a World Cup final.
More than half a century later, France’s Kylian Mbappé repeated the feat against Argentina in the dramatic 2022 final, although France ultimately lost on penalties.
Those remain the only hat-tricks ever recorded in a World Cup final.
A Record That Keeps Growing
The World Cup has now witnessed more than half a century of hat-trick scorers, yet the feat remains remarkably rare. Germany 2006 remains the only tournament in which no player managed a hat-trick, while the 1954 World Cup still holds the record with eight.
With Messi and David already adding their names to football history in the opening weeks of the 2026 tournament, the number of World Cup hat-tricks continues to rise.
Yet even after nearly a century of competition, only a select group of players have experienced the unique thrill of scoring three times in a single match on football’s grandest stage.
For Messi, it was a missing piece finally secured. For David, it was a moment that transformed him into a national sporting icon.
And for the World Cup itself, it was another reminder that some of football’s most memorable performances arrive in groups of three.
