On Jan. 7, 2020, Cristiano Ronaldo made history after scoring his first hat trick for Juventus. Following the exploit, Ronaldo became the only player in history to record hat tricks in Serie A, LaLiga, the Premier League and at the World Cup. Since returning to Manchester United, he's gone on to reach 60 career hat tricks, but who has the most career hat tricks in the history of soccer?
The greatest tournament in the greatest sport generates the greatest records. The FIFA World Cup, which dates back to 1930, has no shortage of incredible records. With the 2022 tournament around the corner, we’ve compiled the greatest World Cup records of all time.
Want to know who has scored the most goals in the World Cup, overall, in a single match or a single tournament? Read on.
Want to know who has the most clean sheets or longest scoreless streak in a World Cup? Read on.
This list for the players with the most career goals in the history of soccer stretches from players who played in the early 1900s to the present day. Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi score at an unprecedented rate in today’s game, but there are those from history whose rate of scoring was even more impressive.
The Guinness World Record for the most goals scored in a specified period is 1,281 by the Brazilian great Pele, born Edson Arantes do Nascimento.
Is Pelé the greatest of all time? Did Diego Maradona’s accomplishments surpass the Brazilian’s? Are Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in the same conversation? All of these questions are hard to answer because most soccer fans alive today never watched Pelé play in his prime. That could change with this upcoming Netflix documentary, and the official Pelé trailer was released on Thursday.
You know that one friend that always has to ruin a special moment with some snarky comment? That one ass-hat who still has to make it about themselves no matter the situation? On Sunday morning, Brazilian club Santos woke up and decided to be that person.
Lionel Messi made history on Saturday, equaling a record that never would have been possible if he had left Barcelona as he wanted over the summer. With a rare headed goal in first-half stoppage time, Messi tied Pelé’s record for most goals with one club with the Argentine’s 643rd for Barça.
Moments before the record-tying goal, Messi had a penalty kick saved by Jaume Doménech, but Jordi Alba sent the ball back in off the rebound. Eventually the cross looped to the back post where Messi headed in.
MESSI!
With all due respect to FIFA and PES, the most fun soccer video game is Rocket League. As fun as it is to play as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in more traditional soccer sims, playing soccer with a rocket-powered car is so much better.
The 1958 World Cup Final remains an iconic match due to the fact that a 17-year-old Pelé spearheaded Brazil’s 5-2 beatdown of host nation Sweden with two fantastic goals. But rather than turn the page there, why not take a closer look at the Seleção’s first-ever world title?
Having just watched the entire 90 minutes for the first time myself, I’m happy to report that the showpiece event of the sixth World Cup definitely didn’t disappoint. It was a different era — one full of strange skills, uplifting sportsmanship and a certain nostalgic sense of the human collective.
Pelé’s always been everywhere. As a player, he appeared at four World Cups spanning three different continents, his Santos side traveled around the world like the Harlem Globetrotters and he even ventured into the backwoods of American soccer with the New York Cosmos.
But he truly achieved an omnipresence after retiring and transitioning into life as the OG Cristiano Ronaldo, hawking goods and services like a door-to-door salesman while collecting honorary degrees for his contributions to the bicycle kick sciences.