With just less than a month to the African Cup of Nations, we take a look at the hat tricks scored at the final tournaments.
Ad-Diba of Egypt was the first player to score a hat-trick in Africa Cup of Nations (1957) and he remains the only player to score a hat trick in the final game of Africa Cup of Nations 1957 against Ethiopia.
Hassan El-Shazly of Egypt is the only player to score a hat-trick in two Africa Cup of Nations (1963 and 1970).
Laurent Pokou of Ivory Coast is the only player to score a hat-trick involving five goals in Africa Cup of Nations. He scored five goals as Ivory Coast obliterated Ethiopia at the 1970 edition.
The fastest hat-trick was scored by Benedict McCarthy of South Africa against Namibia in 1998 (8′, 11′, 19′ and 21′ minutes) in their 4-1 victory.
Ad-Diba of Egypt and Benedict McCarthy of South Africa are the only players to score all the hat-trick goals of a match alone that which are more than 3 goals in 1957 and 1998 with 4 goals each.
There is no player who scored a hat-trick in a losing match or drawing match of Africa Cup of Nations.
1970, 1998 and 2006 are the only tournaments to have registered more than one hat-trick with two each tournament. In the 1962; 1965; 1972; 1976; 1978; 1980; 1982; 1984; 1986; 1988; 1990; 1992; 2000; 2002; 2010; 2012; 2013; 2015 and 2017 tournaments, there were no hat-tricks registered.
Egypt holds a record of most hat-tricks scored with 5 while Ethiopia has conceded more hat-tricks with 3 and conceded most goals from hat-tricks with 12 goals.
List of Hattricks at AFCON
1- Ad- Diba in 1957 against Ethiopia in Egypt’s 4-1 win. He scored all the four goals in the final.
2- Mahmoud El-Goulnany of Egypt scored against Ethiopia in the 4-0 win.
3- Egypt’s Hassan El-Shazly scored a double brace as Egypt routed Nigeria 6-3 in 1963.
4- Hacene Lalmas of Algeria scored a treble in their 4-0 win against Uganda at the 1968 edition.
5- Laurent Pokou of Ivory Coast is the only player to have scored five goals in one game at the Africa Cup of Nations. He did so in Ivory Coast’s 6-1 win against Ethiopia in 1970.
6- Hassan El-Shazly scored his second hat trick at AFCON in 1970 as Egypt defeated Ivory Coast 3-1.
7- The seventh hat trick was scored by Zambia’s Bernard Chanda as the Chipolopolo thumped Congo 4-2 in 1974.
8- Joel Tiehi scored a hat trick for Ivory Coast in 1994 as the Elephants won 4-0 against Sierra Leone.
9- Legendary Kalushya Bwalya netted three goals for Zambia against Sierra Leone in their 4-0 win at the 1996 edition.
10- South Africa’s Benedict McCarthy has the record for the fastest hat trick. He scored four goals against Namibia in 29 minutes in 1998.
11- Hossam Hassan of Egypt scored three goals as the Pharaohs won, 4-0, against Zambia in 1998.
12- Cameroon’s Patrick Mboma grabbed a hat trick in their 5-3 win over Zimbabwe in 2004.
13- Leading all-time scorer Samuel Eto’o also netted a hat trick in 2006 as Cameroon defeated Angola 3-1.
14- Francileudo dos Santos of Tunisia registered a treble in their 4-1 against Zambia in 2006.
15- The last hat trick scored at Africa Cup of Nations came from Morocco’s Soufiane Alloudi in their 5-1 win against Namibia in 2008.