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Top five leagues
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It’s widely accepted that scoring goals is the most difficult aspect of football. That’s exactly why attacking players gain the most notoriety and are often paid the biggest wages. It’s extremely difficult for strikers to score consistently over many years but few have been more prolific than Robert Lewandowski.
Since making his professional debut in 2007, Lewandowski has scored 694 goals for club and country. The Polish international is one of the best goalscorers in history and he’s showing no signs of slowing up. On Sunday night, Lewandowski scored a hat-trick in Barcelona’s 4-2 win over Celta Vigo as Hansi Flick’s men closed the gap on Real Madrid. And that made the 37-year-old one of the oldest players in history to score a hat-trick in a top European league.
The oldest players to score top-five league history
Using Transfemarkt’s vast database, we analysed the oldest players to ever score hat-tricks across the top five leagues and Lewandowski ranks eight. The Polish striker was aged 30 years and 80 days when he found the net three times for Barcelona against Celtic Vigo. As the graphic below illustrates, Jorge Molina holds the record from the 2021/22 season.
The Granada striker netted a hat-trick in a 4-1 win over Mallorca in December 2021 when he was approaching his 40th birthday. Another LaLiga player ranks second with Real Betis' Joaquín netting his hat-trick against Athletic Club when aged 38 years and 140 days. Alfredo di Stéfano completes the top three and the Real Madrid legend features twice in the top. Cristiano Ronaldo also makes the top ten list twice after scoring two Premier League hat-tricks during his second spell at Manchester United.
