When it comes to overseas players, English Premier League clubs have often looked to the Netherlands. The Dutch Eredivisie isn’t considered to be of a high standard, so many of its top stars are also happy to play abroad.
The result is a host of Dutch stars, including some top strikers, making their way to England, but which of those players has landed a Premier League hat trick?
How many Dutch Players have Scored a hat trick in the EPL?
At the start of the 2022/23 Premier League season in England, seven Dutch players had scored a hat trick in the division. Some of those footballers had hit trebles on more than one occasion, while others had registered just one hat trick before their time in the EPL came to an end.
List of all Dutch Hattrick Scorers
Ruud van Nistelrooy (5 times)
Ruud van Nistelrooy is one of two Dutch players to have scored five hat tricks in the Premier League. The striker joined Manchester United from PSV Eindhoven in 2001 and he would spend five seasons at Old Trafford, scoring 95 league goals.
Van Nistelrooy’s first hat trick came against Southampton in December 2001, and he followed that up with three trebles in the 2002/03 season. Those hat tricks came in games versus Newcastle United, Fulham and Charlton Athletic before the Dutchman completed his final treble, against Leicester City in September 2003.
Robin van Persie (5 times)
Another player from the Netherlands to have featured for Manchester United, Robin van Persie made his name in England. He joined the Gunners from Feyenoord in 2004, before leaving for Old Trafford in 2012.
Van Persie’s five Premier League hat tricks began in 2011 when he scored all three Arsenal goals in a 3-0 win over Wigan Athletic. Two more trebles followed while with the Gunners – against Chelsea in 2011, and Blackburn Rovers in 2012.
Robin Van Persie completed his list of Premier League hat tricks for Manchester United versus Southampton in 2012, and Aston Villa in 2013.
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (4 times)
Centre forward Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink will mostly be remembered for his time with Chelsea, but he played for five English clubs in his career. His best years came, however, with the Blues, where he scored 87 goals in four seasons.
Three of Hasselbaink’s four Premier League hat tricks were as a Chelsea player. The first of these landed in a 6-1 win over Coventry in October 2000. Two more Chelsea trebles followed against Spurs and Wolves, before his final EPL hat trick came for Middlesbrough versus Blackburn Rovers in October 2004.
Dennis Bergkamp
Arsenal’s Dennis Bergkamp is thought by many to be the best Dutch footballer to have played in the Premier League, so it may be surprising to see that he has only scored one hat trick in English football while also winning it 3 times.
Bergkamp joined the Gunners from Inter Milan in 1995, and he scored 120 goals for the club in eleven seasons. That solitary hat trick came in August 1997, when the Dutchman scored all three goals in Arsenal’s 3-3 draw with Leicester City.
Marc Overmars
Marc Overmars was a teammate of Dennis Bergkamp’s for the whole of his spell at Arsenal between 1997 and 2000. As a winger, he wasn’t a regular goalscorer for the Gunners, but he still made some important contributions.
He scored 25 goals in exactly 100 league matches, which equated to a respectable average of one every four games. Overmars registered one hat trick in the Premier League, and it came against Middlesbrough in November 1999, with the Dutchman finding the net three times in a 5-1 victory.
1999/2000 was his last with Arsenal, and those three goals were part of just seven strikes that Marc Overmars made in that campaign.
Dirk Kuyt
A combative forward, Dirk Kuyt wasn’t a prolific goalscorer, but he was another player who made important contributions to his team’s cause. He joined Liverpool from Feyenoord in 2006, and the Reds would often use Kuyt as a second striker or a winger.
Despite not taking the main striking role for much of his Liverpool career, Kuyt scored 51 goals in the Premier League and 71 in English football across all competitions.
Within those 51 goals was just one Premier League hat trick. Dirk Kuyt found the net three times in March 2011 as his Liverpool team beat old rivals Manchester United by three goals to one. This was the first time in 21 years that any Liverpool player had scored a hat trick in the League against these opponents.
Georginio Wijnaldum
Despite enjoying his most successful period with Liverpool, Georginio Wijnaldum’s only Premier League hat trick came during his time with Newcastle United. The Dutch international midfielder arrived at St James’s Park from PSV Eindhoven in 2015, and he enjoyed a productive spell in the North East.
Wijnaldum scored 11 goals for Newcastle in 40 appearances, and four of those strikes came in just one match. Playing for the Magpies against Norwich City in October 2015, the Dutchman hit a hat trick and added one more goal in a 6-2 thumping.
After that game, interest in Georginio Wijnaldum grew around the Premier League. He joined Liverpool at the start of the following season and, while he proved to be a useful goalscorer, he never scored another Premier League hat trick.
Final Thoughts
The Dutch players with multiple hat tricks in the Premier League should come as no surprise. Of all the strikers from the Netherlands to appear in English football, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Robin van Persie and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink were the most prolific.
There are few surprises in the additional list either, although Georginio Wijnaldum and Marc Overmars were never prolific scorers for their respective clubs. The others were all regular scorers and should maybe have added more hat tricks during their time in England.
Many Dutch players remain in the Premier League so there is scope for more additions to this list in the near future. Who will be next, and will any player reach that record of five hat tricks for Dutch footballers in the EPL?
