IFFHS CONTINENTAL RECORDS - UEFA
Picture : Gift Orban's hat trick entered in History !
What a Gift!
In 15 March Conference League round of 16 game İstanbul Başakşehir vs Gent (1-4), the Belgium side striker Gift Orban has scored a hat-trick declared to be the fastest in whole history of major European club competitions.
20-year old Nigerian netted there goals in a row on minutes 31, 32 and 34. The exact time span of his feat made 3 minutes 25 seconds.
*To be accurate, there was another hat-trick in the continental competitions’ history which took between 3 and 4 minutes.
Mark Burchill of Celtic scored his goals in a 7-0 win over Jeunesse Esch in a UEFA Cup qualifier on 24 August 2000 on minutes 12, 14 and 15.
So, the more correct is to consider the Orban’s feat as equaling the Burchill’s record.
Curiously, Burchill was also 20-year old at setting his record.
*For comparison, in the European Cup/Champions League specially, two fastest hat-tricks were scored in 6 minutes:
on 13 September 1978, Claudio Sulser (Grasshopper) has scored vs Valletta (8–0) on minutes 58, 62, 64.
on 12 October 2022, Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) has scored vs Rangers (7-1) on minutes 75, 80, 81.
*Back to Orban, he has debuted for Gent just slightly more than a month ago, on 11 February, and managed to score already 12 goals in all competitions, including 4 in the last domestic league game vs Zulte Waregem (6-2). He became the first player of Gent to score a poker in the XXI century.
A real gift for his new club!