The most hat-tricks scored in a single season
Whether you play your football down at the park, the six-a-side pitches or stadiums around the world, little feeling can top that of scoring a hat trick.
A fair few players in the modern era have set incredible records for goalscoring, including the likes of Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema. Those are three players who have netted the odd hat trick here and there, too.
But there are some lesser-known treble-hitting heroics from legends of the game whose records still stand today.
Let's venture back to a time when the Premier League didn't even exist. Yes, it's hard, but the payoff will be worth it.
As Middlesbrough won promotion in the 1926/27 season, striker George Camsell would score 59 times in just 37 Second Division games, setting an English league record which would actually be beaten the very next season by Everton legend Dixie Dean when he netted 60 goals.
Read more on Erling Haaland's incredible goalscoring records here
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The nine hat-tricks former England international Camsell scored that season remains an English record for most in a league season. He is ahead of Dean in the placings, with Dean scoring seven of his 37 career hat-tricks in 1927/28.
Camsell enjoyed a remarkable but short-lived career with the Three Lions, netting 18 goals in nine appearances, often being overlooked for Dean and Cliff Bastin.
However, with Boro he is an undoubted legend, being the club's top scorer in each of his first full ten seasons. In total, he scored 24 hat-tricks for Boro and is their leading goalscorer with 345.
The most Premier League hat-tricks in a single season
Alan Shearer holds a whole host of Premier League records due to his elite goalscoring during the 1990s and early 2000s.
His 1995/96 season was his final campaign with Blackburn and the third in a row in which he scored over 30 Premier League goals. The final tally was 31, with 15 coming as part of hat-tricks, but they only took the Rovers to seventh in the table.
While Shearer's five trebles are impressive, that's only a smidge more than half of what Camsell achieved during the 1926/27 season.
Season | Player | Hat-tricks |
|---|---|---|
1995/96 | Alan Shearer | 5 |
2022/23* | Erling Haaland | 4 |
2016/17 | Harry Kane | 4 |
2017/18 | Sergio Aguero | 3 |
2018/19 | Sergio Aguero | 3 |
2002/03 | Ruud van Nistelrooy | 3 |
2010/11 | Dimitar Berbatov | 3 |
Who has scored the most hat-tricks ever?
Guinness World Records recognise Brazilian legend Pele as having scored the most hat-tricks in history with 92. However, RSSSF's date indicates Erwin Helmchen scored at least 141 trebles.
Helmchen's career spanned 27 years from 1924 to the early 1950s and he mainly played for PSV Chemnitz in the Gauliga Sachsen. He won that league title twice in 1935 and 1936, also winning the Saxon Cup in 1935.
Helmchen was called up for Germany's national team but never actually featured due to a mix of injury, form and leaving a poor impression.