Comparing Erling Haaland’s hat-trick rate with Mbappe, Messi & Ronaldo | OneFootball

Erling Haaland scored his first hat-trick for Manchester City in over a year to help condemn Liverpool to a 4-0 defeat in the FA Cup on Saturday.

Haaland’s hat trick was his 12th in all competitions since joining City, which is the most of any player in Europe’s top five leagues in that timeframe. He also has another 10 hat tricks to his name from before joining City, as well as six on international duty for Norway.

Focusing on his City career, Haaland’s 12th hat trick came on his 190th appearance for the club. Although he hadn’t scored three in one game since doing so against West Ham in August 2024, his ratio remains astonishing.

Incredibly, he averages a hat trick approximately every 16 games he plays for City (15.8 is the more precise average). Over his career, he averages a hat trick every 17.7 games.

In contrast, the other main prolific goalscorer of his generation, Kylian Mbappe, has five hat tricks for his current club Real Madrid. His average for Madrid is one hat trick every 18.8 games.

Over Mbappe’s whole club career, a hat trick appears on average every 22.6 games.

Thus, Haaland hits trebles more frequently – which will partially be down to him being a centre-forward for all of his career, in contrast to Mbappe sometimes playing on the wing.

But how does City’s number nine stack up against the two outstanding goalscorers that defined the era before his own rise to prominence: Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo?

Messi has 50 all-time club career hat tricks and Ronaldo has 56. Messi’s average is one every 18.9 games and Ronaldo’s is one every 19.4 games – neither superior to Haaland.

Haaland is the same age as Messi was when he brought up his 22nd club career hat trick: 25. (Messi was a month younger). Ronaldo was older at 28.

Haaland presumably has plenty of hat tricks ahead of him and will hope to keep recording them at a similar rate.

Full list of Haaland hat-tricks for Manchester City

Crystal Palace (August 2022) Nottingham Forest (August 2022) Manchester United (October 2022) Wolves (January 2023) RB Leipzig (March 2023) Burnley (March 2023) Fulham (September 2023) Luton (February 2024) Wolves (May 2024) Ipswich (August 2024) West Ham (August 2024) Liverpool (April 2026)