Over 200 players have scored a Prem hat-trick, but which African stars have done it on multiple occasions?
1. Yakubu Ayegbeni
The highest-scoring Nigerian player in Premier League history, Yakubu doesn’t get the credit he deserves for his near-century of top flight goals.
He scored hat-tricks on four occasions in the top tier, with the last coming on 3 December 2011, and the Yak is among five players who scored hat-tricks for three separate Prem clubs.
No African player has scored more, while Yakubu is one of only two players—the other being Robbie Fowler—to have scored multiple ‘perfect’ hat-tricks.
2. Mohamed Salah
The all-time top African scorer in English top flight history, it may come as little surprise that Salah is one of two African players—and 12 overall—who have scored four hat-tricks in the top tier.
His most recent came in October 2021, during that sensational run of form he enjoyed at the start of last season, and the Egypt superstar is in danger of passing a year without a triple in the top tier.
Only 14 players in Prem history have scored more hat-tricks than Salah.
3. Emmanuel Adebayor
Adebayor is tied with Drogba on three hat-tricks, but holds a special record of his own in the Premier League.
In 2007-08, the Togo frontman netted in both of Arsenal’s league games against Derby County, becoming the first player to score in both home and away fixtures against the same opponent in a single season.
His third hat-trick came in a 4-0 victory at Blackburn Rovers.
4. Didier Drogba
Drogba ended his time in England with three Premier League hat-tricks, but arguably as impressively, is that he’s one of only six players to have netted hat-tricks in consecutive league games.
Of course, Haaland has already joined this club during his brief time in the top flight, with Les Ferdinand, Ian Wright, Wayne Rooney and Harry Kane the other stars to have achieved this rare feat.
5. Tony Yeboah
Primarily known as a scorer of great goals in the English game, Anthony Yeboah certainly knew how to eviscerate a defence single-handedly.
He twice scored hat-tricks for Leeds United—both in 1995—with his first triple making him the third African player (after Efan Ekoku and Ndlovu) to hit a treble in the top tier.
6. Sadio Mane
Scorer of two Premier League hat-tricks, the former Golden Boot winner also holds the record for the quickest ever top flight triple.
Mane’s hat-trick for Southampton against Aston Villa—with all goals coming in two minutes and 56 seconds—set the forward a part as one of the league’s most dangerous talents, and further glories would ensure at Liverpool.
7. Riyad Mahrez
Not primarily known for his goalscoring, Mahrez is nonetheless capable of devastating an opponent when the mood takes him.
He scored his first hat-trick for Leicester City during their title-winning season, becoming the first Arabic player to score three goals in a single Prem game.
His latest treble came in November 2020, when he scored three of Manchester City’s goals in their 5-0 throttling of Burnley.
8. Benjani Mwaruwari
Following in Peter Ndlovu’s footsteps to become the second Zimbabwean player to score a Premier League hat-trick, Benjani actually went one better than his compatriot by hitting three goals on two occasions.
The first came in Portsmouth’s 7-4 rout of Reading in September 2007—the highest scoring game in Prem history—while he also repeated the trick against Derby County later that season.
9. Demba Ba
Both of Ba’s hat-tricks came during a golden few months for the striker early in the 2011-12 season.
Ba scored all of Newcastle United’s goals as they dispatched Blackburn Rovers 3-1 in September 2011, before also putting Stoke City to the sword a month later.
Source: Ghanaweb