Strikers love scoring goals and are usually happy when they hit a hat-trick.
Some forwards have huge collections of match balls by the end of their careers and in Madeira, Cristiano Ronaldo has his on show at his very own museum.
A select group of players have even managed to hit trebles in back-to-back games.
From the Premier League to the Champions League and international fixtures, a look at the men's players who scored consecutive hat-tricks...
John Utaka
Before joining Portsmouth in 2007, former Nigeria striker John Utaka spent five years in Ligue 1 with Lens and Rennes.
During his time with the latter, Utaka hit back-to-back hat-tricks in early 2006, scoring three in a 4-1 win at home to his former side Lens and then another treble in an impressive victory by the same scoreline at Lyon seven days later.
Ian Wright
Ian Wright was a hero at Arsenal in the early years of the Premier League and the former England striker was the Gunners' all-time top scorer until he was overtaken by Thierry Henry.
In March 1994, Wright hit back-to-back hat-tricks for Arsenal, both on the road as the Gunners won 5-1 at Ipswich Town and then 4-0 away to Southampton.
Dries Mertens
In December 2016, Dries Mertens became the first player to score back-to-back hat-tricks in Serie A in over 40 years.
The Belgian forward hit three in a 5-0 win away to Cagliari and then scored four in a 5-3 victory at home to Torino seven days later. Napoli went on to finish third in Serie A and Mertens netted a career-best 34 goals in all competitions.
Antoine Griezmann
Antoine Griezmann became the first player in Atlético Madrid's history to score back-to-back hat-tricks, hitting two trebles in early 2018.
The French forward netted three in a 5-2 win at Sevilla in late February and then bagged all four in a 4-0 victory at home to Leganés three days later.
Roy Makaay
Roy Makaay scored over 100 goals for Bayern Munich in four seasons at the Bavarian giants and won the Bundesliga twice in that time.
The former Netherlands striker scored back-to-back hat-tricks away from home towards the end of the 2004/05 season, hitting three in a 4-0 win at Kaiserslautern in late April and then another hat-trick in a 4-2 victory at Mainz in early May. Michael Ballack scored the other goal for Bayern in both games.
Didier Drogba
Didier Drogba scored back-to-back hat-tricks for Chelsea in 2010 – but the two trebles came over three months apart.
The Ivorian hit three in an 8-0 win at home to Wigan Athletic on the final weekend of the 2009/10 season in May as Chelsea won the title and added another treble on the opening day of the 2010/11 campaign as the Blues thrashed West Brom 6-0 at Stamford Bridge in August.
Luiz Adriano
Playing for Shakhtar Donetsk against BATE Borisov in October 2014, Luiz Adriano became only the second player, after Barcelona's Lionel Messi, to score five goals in a Champions League match.
The Brazilian forward hit five in a 7-0 win away from home and added another three in the return fixture in Ukraine a couple of weeks later as Shakhtar won 5-0 in the second match. Erling Haaland also scored five for Manchester City in a 7-0 win over RB Leipzig in March 2023.
Jimmy Greaves
The greatest goalscorer in English football history, Jimmy Greaves netted 44 times in just 57 appearances for England, including six hat-tricks.
Greaves finished his career as the highest scorer in English top-flight history and hit 15 hat-tricks for Tottenham alone. Two of those came in back-to-back matches in the FA Cup in January 1965 as Spurs beat Torquay United 5-1 at home in a replay in the third round and then thrashed Ipswich Town 5-0 at White Hart Lane in their next tie.
Les Ferdinand
Les Ferdinand scored four Premier League hat-tricks and the first two of those came back in the competition's inaugural season.
Ferdinand hit three goals in a 4-3 win for Queens Park Rangers over Nottingham Forest at Loftus Road in April 1993 and followed that up with another treble as QPR beat Everton 5-3 at Goodison Park just two days later.
Michel Platini
Michel Platini was instrumental in France's victory at Euro 1984, scoring nine goals as Les Bleus claimed a first-ever major trophy in men's football.
The former Juventus forward scored a hat-trick in a 5-0 win over Belgium and added another treble as France beat Yugoslavia 3-2 in their final group game. He went on to net the winner against Portugal in extra time in the last four and the opener as Les Bleus beat Spain 2-0 in the final.
Wayne Rooney
Manchester United thrashed Arsenal 8-2 in the Premier League in August 2011 and Wayne Rooney scored three of the goals at Old Trafford.
Two weeks later, the former England striker hit another three in United's next Premier League game as Sir Alex Ferguson's side thrashed Bolton Wanderers 5-0 away from home.
Karim Benzema
Karim Benzema won the Champions League five times as a Real Madrid player and the French forward is one of the competition's all-time top scorers.
A foil for Cristiano Ronaldo for much of his Madrid career, Benzema assumed a greater responsibiity in front of goal after the Portuguese left in 2018 and the Frenchman was instrumental as Los Blancos took the Champions Leaue title in 2022, hitting back-to-back hat-tricks against Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea in the knockout stages.
Erling Haaland
Erling Haaland signed for Manchester City in the summer of 2022 from Borussia Dortmund and the Norwegian made an instant impression with the Sky Blues.
Haaland hit back-to-back hat-tricks in Premier League wins over Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest in August 2022 and repeated the feat two years later with consecutive trebles against West Ham and Ipswich Town.
Harry Kane
Harry Kane hit back-to-back hat-tricks for Tottenham in September 2017, with four goals in a 6-1 win at Leicester and then three more in a 7-1 victory at Hull.
Three months later, Kane repeated the ahievement, with consecutive trebles in a 3-0 win at Burnley and a 5-2 success at home to Southampton. The England striker has also scored back-to-back hat-tricks for Bayern Munich, with three goals in an 8-0 win over Darmstadt in late October 2023 and another treble in a 4-0 victory against Borussia Dortmund the following weekend.
Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo is the Champions League's all-time top scorer and the Portuguese superstar netted eight hat-tricks in the continental competition.
Three of those came in the 2016/17 season and two in back-to-back games in the knockout stages: three goals as Real Madrid beat Bayern Munich 4-2 in extra time in the quarter-finals in April and another treble in a 3-0 win over Atlético Madrid in the last four first leg in early May. In total, Ronaldo has over 60 career hat-tricks and has scored consecutive trebles on six occasions. In May and June 2015, Cristiano scored hat-tricks in three successive games: two for Real Madrid and one for Portugal.
Lionel Messi
Lionel Messi hit a hat-trick for Barcelona in a 7-0 win over Celtic in September 2016 and, after missing the trip to Borussia Mönchengladbach in matchday two, the Argentine attacker bagged another treble in his next Champions League match, a 4-0 victory over Manchester City as Pep Guardiola returned to the Camp Nou.
In October 2024, Messi scored an impressive 11-minute hat-trick for Inter Miami in a 6-2 win over New England Revolution, having also hit a treble in a 6-0 victory for Argentina in a World Cup qualifier against Bolivia days earlier. In total, Messi has hit hat-tricks in consecutive games on six occasions throughout his career.
