List of AFC Asian Cup hat-tricks

Hossein Kalani scored the first hat-trick in the tournament's history, in the 1972 edition.

This is a list of hat-tricks in the AFC Asian Cup, that being when a player scores three or more goals in a tournament match of the AFC Asian Cup (not including qualification matches). Hat-tricks have occurred nineteen times across the eighteen editions.

The first tournament was held in 1956, however no hat-tricks were scored in the first four competitions. The first instance was in 1972, where Hossein Kalani scored three goals for Iran against Iraq in the group stage.[1] Later on in the same tournament again for Iran, Ali Jabbari scored three goals inside nine minutes to defeat Thailand 3–2. The first time a player would score four goals in a match would be 1980, where Behtash Fariba achieved the feat in a 7–0 win for Iran over Bangladesh. After 1980, three tournaments went by without a hat-trick before Ali Daei scored four goals for Iran in a 6–2 win over South Korea in 1996, also marking the first time at least three goals were scored in a match in the knockout stage. Two tournaments later in 2004, another knockout stage hat-trick was achieved by Ali Karimi for Iran in a 4–3 win against South Korea, again in the quarter-finals. In the 2023 tournament, Akram Afif became the first player to register a hat-trick in the final of the competition, scoring all three of Qatar's goals in their 3–1 victory against Jordan; he was also the first player whose hat-trick consisted solely of penalty kicks.

Iran have scored the most hat-tricks with six, while Bangladesh and Uzbekistan have conceded the most, with three each. No player has ever scored multiple hat-tricks in the Asian Cup, and every hat-trick scorer has had their side go on to win their match.

Hat-tricks

Key
^4	Player scored four goals in the match

No.	Tournament	Player	Time of goals	Representing	Result	Opponent	Round	Date	Ref.
1	1972	Hossein Kalani	34', 70', 78'	Iran	3–0	Iraq	Group stage	9 May 1972	[1][2]
2		Ali Jabbari	80', 86', 88'	Iran	3–2	Thailand		13 May 1972	[2]
3	1976	Gholam Hossein Mazloumi	63', 74', 80'	Iran	8–0	South Yemen	Group stage	8 June 1976	[3]
4	1980	Behtash Fariba^4	11', 34', 80', 82'	Iran	7–0	Bangladesh	Group stage	22 September 1980	[4]
5		Choi Soon-ho	26', 53', 78' (pen.)	South Korea	4–1	United Arab Emirates		24 September 1980	[5]
6		Shen Xiangfu	1', 5', 72'	China	6–0	Bangladesh		25 September 1980
7		Xu Yonglai	16', 79', 89'
8	1996	Ali Daei^4	66', 76', 83', 89' (pen.)	Iran	6–2	South Korea	Quarter-finals	16 December 1996	[6]
9	2000	Akinori Nishizawa	14', 25', 49'	Japan	8–1	Uzbekistan	Group stage	17 October 2000	[7]
10		Naohiro Takahara	18', 20', 57'
11		Lee Dong-gook	30', 76', 90+1'	South Korea	3–0	Indonesia		19 October 2000	[8]
12		Mohammad Al-Shalhoub	35', 78', 86'	Saudi Arabia	5–0	Uzbekistan		20 October 2000	[9]
13	2004	Ali Karimi	10', 20', 77'	Iran	4–3	South Korea	Quarter-finals	31 July 2004	[10]
14	2011	Ismail Abdullatif^4	16', 19', 35', 77'	Bahrain	5–2	India	Group stage	14 January 2011	[11]
15		Shinji Okazaki	8', 13', 80'	Japan	5–0	Saudi Arabia		17 January 2011	[12]
16	2015	Hamza Al-Dardour^4	35', 45+2', 75', 80'	Jordan	5–1	Palestine	Group stage	16 January 2015	[13]
17	2019	Almoez Ali^4	9', 11', 55', 60'	Qatar	6–0	North Korea	Group stage	13 January 2019	[14]
18		Vitalij Lux	24', 51', 77'	Kyrgyzstan	3–1	Philippines		16 January 2019	[15]
19	2023	Akram Afif	22' (pen.), 73' (pen.), 90+5' (pen.)	Qatar	3–1	Jordan	Final	10 February 2024	[16]

By nation

Nation	Hat-tricks
Iran	6
Japan	3
South Korea	2
China	2
Qatar	2
Jordan	1
Saudi Arabia	1
Bahrain	1
Kyrgyzstan	1

References

1. "Asian Cup 1972". Inside World Football. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
2. "Asia's greatest national teams: IR Iran (1970s)". Asian Football Confederation. 29 April 2020.
3. "Iran Wins 8-0; To Face Chinese". The Japan Times. 10 June 1976. p. 10.
4. "Profile: Behtash Fariba". Team Melli. Retrieved 2 August 2020. Fariba continued to be a star of the team and he was the first Iranian footballer to score four goals in an international match which was against Bangladesh in that championship
5. "아시아축구 韓國(한국) 「아랍에미레이트」 大破(대파) 4대1". 동아일보 (in Korean). 25 September 1980. Retrieved 22 June 2022.
6. "Magical Moments: Ali Daei vs Korea Republic (1996 AFC Asian Cup)". Asian Football Confederation. 6 June 2020.
7. Himmer, Alastair (19 October 2000). "Japan runs riot over Uzbekistan". The Japan Times.
8. "Lion King eases South Korea through". BBC Sport. 19 October 2000.
9. "World Cup - Squad - Mohammed Al-Shlhoub". BBC Sport. 30 May 2002. Few can forget his amazing hat-trick against Uzbekistan at Lebanon 2000.
10. "Iran wreaks its Asian Cup revenge on S Korea". Independent Online. 31 July 2004.
11. "India trail 1-4 at half-time against Bahrain". The Times of India. 14 January 2011.
12. "Okazaki hits hat trick as Japan routs Saudis". The Japan Times. 19 January 2011.
13. Veo, Valerio (17 January 2015). "Jordan beat Palestine, but how good are they against stronger opposition?". ESPN.
14. "Almoez Ali makes history as Qatar thump North Korea to reach Asian Cup knockouts". ESPN. 13 January 2019.
15. Caygill, Graham (16 January 2019). "Vitali Lux's hat-trick puts Kyrgyzstan in good position to qualify for Asian Cup last 16". The National.
16. "Afif stars as Qatar defeat Jordan to retain title". Asian Football Confederation. 10 February 2024. Retrieved 10 February 2024.