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Lionel Messi, along with Cristiano Ronaldo, have been standout performers for club and country during the decade that was 2010 to 2019. Ronaldo and Messi, with 54 and 50 respectively have the two leading tallies of hat-tricks by any active player. Among a plethora of other scoring records, the duo are the only players to score 300 or more goals in the La Liga and 100 or more goals in the Champions League.
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It is rare for a player to score hat-tricks, and evidently rarer still to score a quadruple (4 goals in a game) or a quintuple in a competitive football game in modern times. It is evidenced in the fact that no player since Archie Thompson has scored six in a game since the Australian player scored 13 past American Samoa in a 2002 FIFA World Cup qualifier. An elite group of players have scored 5 goals in a game during the decade, but none have done so in an international tournament like the World Cup, European Championships or the Copa America. Let us meet this exclusive group.
#10: Dimitar Berbatov (Manchester United)
Ending an 11-game scoring drought in some style, Manchester United striker Dimitar Berbatov scored 5 past Blackburn Rovers in a Premier League game of the 2010-11 season. It made the Bulgarian player the first after Alan Shearer, Andy Cole, and Jermain Defoe to score 5 goals in a Premier League game.
# 9: Radamel Falcao (Atlético Madrid)
Radamel Falcao became the first player in a decade to score 5 goals in a Liga game when he did so in Atletico Madrid's 6-0 win over Deportivo La Coruna in the 2012-13 Liga season. Fernando Morientes was the last player to score a quintuplet in a Liga game. The Spanish striker scored 5 goals for Real Madrid against Las Palmas in a league game of the 2001-02 season. In the process, Falcao stole a march on the Liga's two all-time top-scorers Messi and Ronaldo by beating both to become the first player since Morientes to score 5 in a Liga game.
Also check out: Champions league top scorers Premier League Table La liga table 2019-20
#8: Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
Lionel Messi scored 5 goals for Barcelona against Bayer Leverkusen in a Round of 16 game in the 2011-12 UEFA Champions League. It made Messi the first player to score 5 in a Champions League game - a feat subsequently equalled only by Brazilian striker Luiz Adriano for Shakhtar Donetsk in the group-stage of the 2015-16 edition of the competition.It also marked the only time Messi scored 5 in a game for Barcelona in all competitions.
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#7: Miroslav Klose (Lazio)
Miroslav Klose became the first player to score 5 goals in a Serie A game when the German striker scored five past Bologna for Lazio in a league game of the 2012-13 season. It made the all-time FIFA World Cup record scorer the first Lazio player to do so and the first player since Roberto Pruzzo (1986) to score five goals in a Serie A game.
#6: Carlos Eduardo (Nice)
Carlos Eduardo became the only player to score 5 goals in a Ligue 1 game during the 2010s when the on-loan Brazilian player from Porto did so for Nice in a 7-1 win against Guingamp in the 2014-15 Ligue 1 season.
#5: Luiz Adriano
Luiz Adriano emulated Lionel Messi to score 5 goals in a Champions League game when the Brazilian did so for Shakhtar Donetsk against BATE Borisov in a group-stage game in the 2014-15 edition of the competition. No player has since scored as many in a Champions League game since the Brazilian.
# 4: Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid): TWICE
Ronaldo bagged his first quintuple haul in the Liga when the Portuguese marksman scored 5 in Real Madrid's 9-1 win over Granada in a Liga game of the 2015-16 season. Few months later, Ronaldo became the first player to score multiple quintuples in the Top 5 leagues when the prolific striker netted five past Espanyol in a 6-0 win for Madrid in a 2016-17 as the Spanish capital club went on to win the league that season.
#3: Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich)
Robert Lewandowski became the first substitute to score 5 goals in the Bundesliga when the Bayern Munich striker came on in the second half of a 2015-16 Bundesliga game against Wolfsburg and scored 5 past the bedazzled opponents during a stunning 9-minute blitzkrieg.In the process, Lewandowski smashed the records of fastest hat-trick, quadruple, and qunituple in the German top-flight.
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#2: Sergio Agüero (Manchester City)
Sergio Agüero emulated Dimitar Berbatov as the only players to score 5 goals in a Premier League game in the 2010s when the Argentinian striker scored 5 past Newcastle United for Manchester City in a league game of the 2015-16 season. In the process, Aguero became only the 5th player overall to score 5 goals in a game in the Premier League era.
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#1: Luka Jovic (Eintracht Frankfurt)
20-year-old Luka Jovic became the youngest player to score 5 goals in a game across the top leagues in Europe when the Serbian did so for Eintracht Frankfurt in a 7-1 win over Fortuna Düsseldorf in the 2018-19 Bundesliga season. It puts Jovic in the company of prolific scorers like Ronaldo, Messi, Lewandowski, and Aguero to score 5 goals in a game.
