The Most Goals Scored by a Single Player in a Soccer Match

There have been plenty of impressive one-man hauls over the years.

Messi once scored five goals in a single Champions League game. / Getty/Josep Lago

Goals make the soccer world spin, and the modern era has delivered some truly remarkable performances from elite goalscorers.

Yet, despite the brilliance of players like Lionel Messi and Erling Haaland, many of the sport’s most astonishing goalscoring records—set decades ago—still stand untouched.

Here are the records for the most goals scored in a single game by one player.

---

The Most Goals Scored by a Single Player in a Match

Stefan Dembicki. / Creative Commons

Stefan Dembicki currently holds the record for the most goals scored by a single player in a professional match—netting an astonishing 16 times for RC Lens during their 32–0 victory over Auby Asturies in the 1942 Coupe de France.

Honourable mentions also go to Hacène Lalmas and Malika-e-Noor, who both scored 14 times in a single game in Algeria and Pakistan respectively, as well as Yanick Djouzi Manzizila, who once scored 21 goals in a single match for Congo United—an impressive feat even if not in a professional game.

Meanwhile, Shokhan Salihi holds the record for the most goals scored in a women’s football match—bagging 15 of Al Hilal’s 18 unanswered goals in the Saudi Women’s Premier League. Sama were the club on the wrong end of that 2022–23 demolition.

---

Most Goals Scored by a Single Player in a Premier League Match

Sergio Agüero once scored five goals in a single game for Man City. / Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images

Five players have scored five goals in a single game during the Premier League era, with Andy Cole the first to do so after rattling in five of Manchester United’s nine goals in their legendary thumping of Ipswich Town in 1995.

Alan Shearer followed four years later, leading Newcastle United to an 8–0 rout of Sheffield Wednesday, but it took just over a decade for the next striker to bag a quintuple.

Jermain Defoe ran the show with five goals for Tottenham against Wigan in 2009 before Dimitar Berbatov smashed Blackburn for five of his own in November 2010.

Sergio Agüero is the most recent entry—tonking Newcastle almost single-handedly as Manchester City beat the Magpies 6–1 in 2015.

---

Most Goals Scored by a Single Player in a Champions League Match

Luiz Adriano is an unlikely Champions League record holder. / Getty

Five is the magic number again in the Champions League, with three players sharing the record for most goals scored in a single game.

Unsurprisingly, Lionel Messi is one of them—becoming the first player to reach the feat in March 2012 when Barcelona hammered Bayer Leverkusen 7-1 in the competition’s round of 16.

In October 2014, the lesser-known Luiz Adriano became the second player to score five goals in a single UCL game when his Shakhtar Donetsk side smashed BATE Borisov 7-0.

Inevitably, Erling Haaland got himself in on the five-goal fun in March 2023 against RB Leipzig, scoring all his goals inside an hour before being given an early rest—not a bad night’s work.

Four players also netted five goals during the era of the old European Cup, most notably sharpshooter Gerd Müller for Bayern Munich in 1972. Paul Van Himst, Claudio Sulser and Søren Lerby also achieved the feat on the continent.

---

Most Goals Scored by a Single Player in a Europa League Match

Aduriz is a Bilbao icon. / Getty/Juan Manuel Serrano Arce

Athletic Club legend Aritz Aduriz is the record holder for most goals scored in a Europa League game, netting all five of his side’s goals in a 5–3 victory over Genk in 2016.

In its previous format as the UEFA Cup, eight players bagged five in a single game, including the likes of Fabrizio Ravanelli and Marco van Basten.

---

Most Goals Scored by a Single Player in a La Liga Match

László Kubala. / Creative Commons

The record for most goals scored by a single player in a La Liga game is held jointly by legends of yesteryear Agustín Sauto Arana (best known as “Bata”) and László Kubala, who each scored seven.

Arana hit the landmark first as his Athletic Club outfit smashed Barcelona 12–1 in 1931 before Kubala joined the party 21 years later, this time as Barcelona put Sporting Gijon to the sword with a 9–0 victory.

---

Most Goals Scored by a Single Player in a Serie A Match

Omar Sivori was a world-class striker. / Buzzi/IMAGO

The record for the most goals by a single player in a Serie A match is also shared, with Silvio Piola and Omar Sívori of Vercelli and Juventus respectively both notching six goals in a single game.

In addition, 13 players in Italy’s top flight have scored five goals in a single match, the most recent being Miroslav Klose in 2013—his strikes coming in the space of just 40 minutes.

---

Most Goals Scored by a Single Player in a Bundesliga Match

Dieter Müller is the only player to score six goals in one Bundesliga game. / IMAGO/Werner Otto

When it comes to the most goals by a single player in a Bundesliga match, your mind probably immediately jumps to Robert Lewandowski and his ridiculous substitute appearance against Wolfsburg—coming off the bench to score five goals in just nine minutes.

However, that haul still fell one short of Dieter Müller’s Bundesliga record, who netted six goals in a single game when Köln thrashed Werder Bremen 7–2 in 1977.

Bayern Munich legend Gerd Müller, meanwhile, scored five goals in a single game on four separate occasions.

---

Most Goals Scored by a Single Player in a Ligue 1 Match

Andre Abegglen. / Creative Commons

Rewinding to the 1930s, remarkably the only two seven-goal hauls in Ligue 1 history were recorded within three years of each other.

André Abegglen got the ball rolling, netting seven of Sochaux’s 12 goals against Valenciennes, while the same opposition felt the sting of Jean Nicolas three years later when he scored seven times in Rouen’s 9–1 victory.

---

READ THE LATEST SOCCER NEWS, TRANSFER RUMORS AND MORE

feed