PSL Hat-tricks: After Last Night’s Treble From Lucas Ribeiro

Lucas Ribeiro scored a second-half hat-trick for Sundowns against AmaZulu on Tuesday night to help the defending champions take another step towards a seventh straight title. In the process, the Brazilian (excuse the pun) became the first player to reach 10 league goals in the DSTV Premiership this season. Altogether, this is the 124th time a player has scored a league hat-trick in South African professional football history. We look back at some of the best facts related to PSL hat-tricks since the establishment of the competition in 1996.

Joga-Bonito

Ribeiro Costa is the first ever player from Brazil to score a league hat-trick in the Premier Soccer League, with Brazil now the 18th different nation to be represented by a hat-trick scorer in the competition. Indeed, he is also the first South American player to net a league treble in PSL top-flight history. Naturally, South Africa is the country with the most trebles – 82 such instances are credited to SA-born players. Two in every three hat-tricks are scored by locals, exemplified by last season’s set of heroes – Caleb Bimenyimana (Burundi), Monnapule Saleng and Ranga Chivaviro (both SA).

4 – Brazil is the fourth non-African country to see one of their own take the match ball home, after New Zealand, England, and Serbia.

The Trompies Show

The first-ever player to score a league hat-trick in the PSL was Pollen Ndlanya, back in September 1996 as Kaizer Chiefs beat Witbank Aces. In fact, Ndlanya scored four goals in that game as Chiefs ran out 7-2 winners. Ndlanya remains the only player to net a hat-trick for three separate clubs (Kaizer Chiefs, Orlando Pirates & AmaZulu) – a hat-trick of hat-tricks if you will.

4 – Ndlanya scored a hat-trick in four different seasons – 1996/97, 1998/99, 1999/00 and 2001/02, and remains the only player to do so in four different seasons.

Team Level

On a team level, Costa’s hat-trick is also an important one. It means 16 players have now bagged trebles for Sundowns, drawing level with Kaizer Chiefs for the most hat-tricks by a team in PSL history. SuperSport are next best with 10 (would have been 11 if Bradley Grobler’s third goal in October v Royal AM was not adjudged to be an own-goal). Swallows and Orlando Pirates are next best with eight league hat-tricks, with Monnapule Saleng (2022/23) the last entrant for the Buccaneers. We can also look at hat-tricks scored against teams, and last night’s events are immediately slotted into the history books.

9 – This was the ninth time a player scored a hat-trick against AmaZulu, the most one-team hat-tricks one team has “suffered” in PSL history.

A Rare Feat (Sometimes)

Ribeiro’s hat-trick was the second of the season, and we still have just over 100 games to go. While many bemoan the lack of hat-tricks in the league, all but one PSL season has seen at least one hat-trick. It seems hard to believe, but in the space of 662 days between 17 May 2017 and 10 March 2019, there was no hat-trick recorded in the PSL. It remains the longest gap between hat-tricks in PSL history.

1 – Only once before has a PSL season gone from start to finish without a league hat-trick, that was 2017/18.

Bonus Content

Of the 124 hat-tricks scored in the PSL, some are remembered more than others. Here is a list of some unique PSL hat-trick information as a bonus.

• Aged, 38 years 4 months, and 29 days, John Moshoeu remains the oldest-ever player to score a hat-trick in the PSL, netting three as Chiefs beat Zulu Royals 4-1 in May 2004.
• Siyabonga Nomvete scored two hat-tricks in his PSL career, with the first coming in February 1998 & the last in April 2012. That gap of 14 years, 2 months, and 5 days is a PSL record for time between two trebles by a single player.
• Peter Shalulile holds the record for the shortest gap between hat-tricks (6 days in April 2022). He is the only player in PSL history to bag a hat-trick in back-to-back games.
• Caleb Bimenyimana is the only player in PSL top-flight history to score a penalty hat-trick, firing three penalties past Stellenbosch in a 3-1 win in October 2022.
• James Chamanga is the only player to score five goals in a game, doing so for Moroka Swallows in a 6–2 league win against Platinum Stars on 9 December 2007. 

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