AFCON has recorded 17 different hattricks with Egypt leading the chart with 6. Egyptian hitman Ad-Diba scored the first hattrick of the AFCON history in 1957 when the Pharaohs thrashed Ethiopia 4-0 in the finals to win the maiden edition of the AFCON.
AFCON has had legendary hattrick scorers like Laurent Pokou, Bernard Chanda, Kalusha Bwalya, Hossam Hassan, Patrick M’boma, Samuel Eto’o, Francileudo Dos Santos and Soufiane Alloudi who happens to be the last hattrick scorer of the AFCON in 2008 at the Accra sports Stadium when Morocco thrashed Namibia 5-1.
All the 17 hattricks were superb but none was as fast as Benni Mcarthy’s 4 goals against neighbours, Namibia at the Stade Municipal, Bobo-Dioulasso in Burkina Faso.
South Africa entered the 1998 AFCON as the defending champions having shocked everyone and lifted the trophy they hosted in 1996.
Bafana had drawn their first two games in Group C with 0-0 and 1-1 draws against Angola and Ivory Coast respectively. In a must-win game against the lowly Namibia, Benni McCarthy scored all 4 goals for South Africa in their 4-1 massacre of Namibia in a space of 13 minutes.
McCarthy’s hat trick was in the 8th, 11th and 19th minutes. He scored an incredible 11-minute hattrick which helped South Africa secure a quarter-final berth as they made it to the finals losing 2-0 to Egypt.
The 11-minute hat trick by Benni McCarthy is the fastest in the history of the competition.
The then Ajax Amsterdam striker won the top scorer along with Egypt’s Hossam Hassan as he scored 7 goals.
Benni Mcarthy was voted as the best player of the 1998 AFCON hosted by Burkina Faso.
