Who is the only player to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final?

The 1966 World Cup final was played on a sunny July afternoon at Wembley Stadium in London. England, the host nation, faced West Germany in front of a packed home crowd. The two sides had played to a tense, evenly matched 2–2 draw in normal time, and the match was sent into extra time. It was over the next half-hour of football that Geoff Hurst, a 24-year-old striker from West Ham, wrote his name into the history books.

Before that match, no player had ever scored three goals in a World Cup final. Hurst had already scored England's opening equaliser early on, heading in a cross to make it 1–1. In extra time he added two more — one of them disputed for decades, the other a powerful left-foot finish in the closing seconds. The final whistle blew shortly afterwards, England won 4–2, and Hurst became the only player ever to score a hat-trick in the most important football match in the sport.

The middle goal of Hurst's three is one of the most replayed and debated moments in football history. He shot from close range, the ball cracked off the underside of the crossbar, bounced down near the goal line, and was cleared. After consulting with his Soviet linesman, the Swiss referee gave the goal. The exact question — did the ball fully cross the line? — has been studied and re-studied ever since, and opinions are still divided. The decision stood, and the goal counted.

That afternoon in 1966 remains England's only World Cup victory. The country invented the modern game, has one of the largest football cultures in the world, and has come close several times since, but the trophy has not returned. Hurst's hat-trick stands alongside that single title as the centrepiece of English football history.

Hurst's hat-trick has only ever been almost matched once, in 2022, when Kylian Mbappé of France scored three goals in the final against Argentina. Mbappé's hat-trick is itself a remarkable achievement, but Argentina won the match on penalties, so the trophy went to them. Hurst's three goals came in a winning final and were the first ever scored in a World Cup final at all — which is why his record is still spoken about as the defining hat-trick in the showpiece game.

This article was written using information from Wikipedia.