People are only just realising why it’s called a hat-trick – and term didn’t start in football
FOOTBALL fans would like nothing more than watching their favourite team’s striker scoring a hat-trick.
The Premier League has seen its fair share of goalscoring geniuses leaving opposing defenders as well as goalkeepers red faced after a stunning performance that sees them scoring three goals.
Manchester City legend Sergio Aguero knows all about it as he tops the Prem charts of most hat-tricks with 12 under his name.
Aguero left City in 2021 but the Manchester giants weren’t deprived of goals as Erling Haaland joined just a year later and has since taken the English top flight by storm.
Haaland has netted a total of FIVE hat-tricks this season across all competitions.
And the star striker may lead to the invention of a new word after netting a staggering FIVE goals against RB Leipzig in the Champions League.
The Norway international counts four hat-tricks in the Premier League, which puts him on par with Harry Kane and Alan Shearer as the only players to ever score that many triples in a single campaign.
But fans are only just getting to know the origins of that term, which doesn’t come even from football.
The word actually comes from cricket, and there is a very good reason behind its inception.
The term was used when a bowler took three wickets from three consecutive balls.
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The player’s respective club would then give them a hat to celebrate the achievement.
Football is filled with colourful terms that many are actually unaware of their origins.
The same goes for “nutmegging”, which has a much more complicated history.