Many great goal scorers have played football since the year 2000. They have scored many goals and won big titles. Some are still playing well, even though they are over 30 years old.
While not all have won league titles, they have been top scorers in Europe’s top five leagues. Some of these players have been top scorers in multiple leagues and more than once.
Here are the ten players who scored four goals in a game the fastest in Europe’s top five leagues since 2000:
10. Patrick Kluivert – 25 minutes (2001-02)
Patrick Kluivert was a great goal scorer. The former Netherlands player started at Ajax and also played for Barcelona and AC Milan, among other teams.
He was the top scorer in Euro 2000 and won four league titles with three different clubs in two countries. Kluivert won the Champions League with Ajax in 1995, becoming the youngest player to score in the final at 18 years old.
In the 1999-00 season, Kluivert helped Barcelona win the La Liga title. Two seasons later, he scored four goals in just 25 minutes against Tenerife. That season, he scored 18 league goals and had 18 assists, but Barcelona finished fourth, 11 points behind the unexpected winners, Valencia.
Despite winning the Eredivisie three times, Kluivert never scored a hat-trick in the Dutch league. Interestingly, his son, Justin Kluivert, did this four years ago.
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9. Cristiano Ronaldo – 24 minutes (2014-15)
Cristiano Ronaldo had one of his best seasons in 2014-15. He scored 48 goals in the league, including eight hat-tricks and two games where he scored four goals.
In one of these games, he scored five goals against Granada. Real Madrid won 9-1, and Ronaldo completed his hat-trick in just eight minutes. Sixteen minutes later, he scored his fourth goal, making it 6-0 for Madrid by the 54th minute.
Ronaldo scored his fifth goal in the 90th minute.
Despite his amazing performance, Real Madrid (with 92 points) lost the title to Barcelona (with 94 points), who won the treble that season.
8. Alvaro Negredo – 21 minutes (2012-13)
Alvaro Negredo has played for eight clubs in four different countries. At 36, he has been most successful in La Liga, scoring 121 goals in over 300 games.
His best season in La Liga was in 2012-13, when he scored 25 goals. Four of those goals were against Valencia in the last game of the season, helping Sevilla win 4-3.
That summer, Negredo moved to Manchester City and won his only Premier League title.
Now with Cadiz, Negredo has scored only twice in 15 league games this season.
7. Mauro Icardi – 21 minutes (2017-18)
Mauro Icardi had a great six seasons at Inter Milan, scoring 121 goals in 220 games. He won the Capocannonieri award twice and scored over 100 league goals for the team. In the 2017-18 season, he was especially impressive, scoring 29 goals, including two hat-tricks. One of those hat-tricks was actually four goals in 21 minutes in a 5-0 win against Sampdoria.
Now at PSG, Icardi has scored 36 goals across all competitions and won the Ligue 1 title in 2019-20.
6. Sergio Aguero – 18 minutes (2015-16)
Sergio Aguero is a famous player from Manchester City and the Premier League. The Argentine had a very successful ten years with City in England.
He won the Premier League five times and scored the most goals (184) for one club in the league. Aguero also has the record for the most hat-tricks (12) in the Premier League. One of those hat-tricks included scoring five goals against Newcastle United in the 2015-16 season.
Aguero scored his hat-trick in eight minutes and then added two more goals in the next 12 minutes. This made him the fifth player to score five goals in a Premier League game, and his 20-minute quintuple is the fastest ever in the sport.
In 2021, Aguero left Manchester City to join Barcelona.
5. Jermain Defoe – 18 minutes (2009-10)
Jermain Defoe is one of the top goal scorers in Premier League history. The 39-year-old Englishman has scored over 150 goals in the league for five different clubs.
His best time in the Premier League was with Tottenham Hotspur, where he scored 91 goals. In one game against Wigan in 2009, he scored five goals, becoming the third player to do this in a Premier League game.
Since then, other players have scored five goals in a game, but Defoe is one of only two players to score five goals in one half of a game.
Now playing for Rangers, Defoe helped them win the Scottish league last season.
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4. Martin Petrov – 16 minutes (2004-05)
Martin Petrov had a good four seasons with VfL Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga, scoring 28 goals and making 38 assists.
His best season was 2004-05, where he had 25 goal contributions (12 goals and 13 assists). In one game against Mainz, he scored all four goals in Wolfsburg’s 4-3 win.
After Mainz scored two early goals, Petrov scored twice just before halftime to tie the game. He then scored two more goals after the break, completing four goals in 16 minutes.
In doing so, Petrov matched Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp’s record of scoring four goals in Wolfsburg-Mainz games. However, Klopp took ten games to achieve this, while Petrov did it in just one.
3. Alberto Bueno – 15 minutes (2014-15)
Alberto Bueno’s time in La Liga wasn’t very memorable, as he scored 36 goals over eight seasons with five different teams. However, he had two standout seasons with Rayo Vallecano in 2013-14 and 2014-15, scoring a total of 28 goals.
In the 2014-15 season, Bueno made history by becoming the first Rayo Vallecano player to score four goals in a La Liga game. He achieved this in just 15 minutes during a 4-2 victory over Levante, scoring all four goals before half-time.
After that remarkable game, Bueno only scored seven more goals in La Liga.
2. Kylian Mbappe – 13 minutes (2018-19)
Kylian Mbappe is one of the best young soccer players today. At just 22 years old, he has already won a World Cup and four Ligue 1 titles. He’s been very successful in the French league, scoring 114 goals in 166 matches for two different teams.
Mbappe has won the Ligue 1 Golden Boot three times and had his best season in 2018-19 with 33 goals. One of his most impressive feats was scoring four goals in just 13 minutes during a 5-0 victory for PSG over Olympique Lyon.
This season, Mbappe has scored seven goals and provided eight assists in 16 games.
1. Robert Lewandowski – 6 minutes (2015-16)
Robert Lewandowski has been a top scorer for both his club and country. The 2021 Ballon d’Or runner-up has consistently scored goals, especially in the Bundesliga.
At 33 years old, Lewandowski holds several records in the German league. With 293 goals, he is the most prolific foreign scorer and the second-highest overall in Bundesliga history. He has won six Bundesliga Golden Boots, just one short of the legendary Gerd Muller.
Last season, Lewandowski scored 41 goals, breaking Muller’s record of 40 goals in a single Bundesliga season. He also has a record 15 hat-tricks in the league. One memorable hat-trick was scored as a substitute against Wolfsburg, where he scored five goals in just nine minutes.
This remains the fastest hat-trick, four-goal, and five-goal performance in Bundesliga history. Lewandowski is on track to match Muller’s record of seven Bundesliga Golden Boots.
So far this season, he has scored 16 goals in 14 league games, helping Bayern Munich in their quest for a tenth straight Bundesliga title.
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