The most goals scored by a single player in a match
- There have been plenty of impressive one-man hauls over the years
- The likes of Lionel Messi and Erling Haaland hold goalscoring records in Europe
- Few players have managed double-digit tallies in professional games
Goals make the football world spin and the modern age has treated fans to some phenomenal showings from incredible goalscorers.
However, a lot of goalscoring records which were set decades ago still stand strong to this day, even with the likes of Lionel Messi and Erling Haaland sniffing around.
Here are the records around the most goals scored in a single game by one player.
Most goals scored by a single player in a match
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.
Shokhan Salihi has scored the most goals in a women's football match, bagging 15 of her Al Hilal side's 18 unanswered goals in the Saudi Women's Premier League. Sama were the club on the wrong end of the embarrassing defeat during the 2022/23 season.
Honourable mentions also go to Hacene Lelmas and Malika-e-Noor, who both scored 14 times in a single game in Algeria and Pakistan respectively. The former produced an unbelievable tally in OMR El Annasser's 18-0 victory in 1962, while Noor scored over half her side's goals in a 25-0 win for the Young Rising Stars in 2011.
Most goals scored by a single player in a Premier League match
Five players have scored five goals in a single game during the Premier League era, with Andy Cole the first to achieve the feat after rattling in five of Manchester United's nine goals in their legendary thumping of Ipswich Town back in 1995.
Alan Shearer got in on the act four years later, leading Newcastle United to an 8-0 rout of Sheffield Wednesday, but it took just over ten years for the next striker to bag their 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 Aguero is the most recent entry, tonking Newcastle almost single-handedly in a 6-1 win in 2015.
Most goals scored by a single player in a Champions League match
Five is the magic number again here in the Champions League, with three players sharing the record for most goals scored in a single game. Unsurprisingly, Messi is one of them.
The Argentine genius was at his brilliant best when Barcelona hosted Bayer Leverkusen in the second leg of their UCL last 16 tie, helping the Catalan giants to a 7-1 victory.
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 Muller for Bayern Munich in 1972. Paul van Himst, Claudio Sulser and Soren Lerby also achieved this feat on the continent.
Most goals scored by a single player in a Europa League match
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
The record for most goals scored by a single player in a La Liga game is held jointly by legends of yesteryear Agustin Sauto Arana and Laszlo 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
The record is also shared in Serie A, with Silvio Piola and Omar Sivori of Vercelli and Juventus respectively both notching six goals in a single game.
There have also been 11 players in Italy's top flight who have netted five goals in one game, the most recent being Miroslav Klose's in 2013 - the German's strikes came in the space of 40 minutes.
Most goals scored by a single player in a Bundesliga match
Your heads probably immediately went to Robert Lewandowski and his ridiculous substitute appearance against Wolfsburg, when he came off the bench to net five goals in nine minutes.
However, that haul was one short of Dieter Muller's Bundesliga record of six goals in one game, back when Koln beat Werder Bremen 7-2 in 1997.
Most goals scored by a single player in a Ligue 1 match
Again we're going back in time, this time to the 1930s, where remarkably the only two seven-goal hauls in the history of Ligue 1 were recorded within three years of one another.
Andre Abegglen got the ball rolling, contributing seven of Sochaux's 12 goals against Valenciennes, and it was the same opposition who would feel the sting of Jean Nicolas three years later when he scored seven times in Rouen's 9-1 victory.
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