14 Days to World Cup
Oleg Salenko’s Five-Goal Record in a Single Match
Collected Photo
The 1994 FIFA World Cup match between Russia and Cameroon produced a record that still stands after so many years. Russia’s Oleg Salenko scored five goals in a single match, an unmatched achievement in World Cup history for the most goals by a player in one game.
Russia defeated Cameroon 6–1 in that match, with Salenko scoring all five of his goals. It was the only World Cup tournament of his career. He played three matches in that edition and scored a total of six goals. He also shared the Golden Boot as the tournament’s top scorer.
Behind Salenko on the list of most goals in a single match are Poland’s Ernest Wilimowski, France’s Just Fontaine, Hungary’s Sándor Kocsis and Brazil’s Ademir de Menezes.
Ernest Wilimowski scored four goals against Brazil in the 1938 World Cup, although his team lost that match 6-5.
Fontaine scored four goals against West Germany in the 1958 World Cup. Kocsis scored four goals against South Korea in the 1954 World Cup, in which he finished with 11 goals in total.
In the 1950 World Cup, Ademir de Menezes scored four goals against Sweden and ended the tournament with nine goals.
