What do Falcao, Ted Drake and Frankie Bunn have in common? (Hint: it has nothing to do with haircuts or salaries)
Radamel Falcao was the hero for Atletico Madrid in La Liga this weekend, as his team stormed to a 6-1 victory over Deportivo La Coruna.
Five of the team’s six goals came from the Colombian himself, as he went on a striking rampage that threatened to overshadow Lionel Messi's record-breaking feats on the same night.
Both Chelsea and Manchester City are rumoured to be courting the 26-year-old for a January transfer, but they will have to shell out a sum in the region of £48 million to meet the release fee in his contract with Athletico.
The Colombian scored five goals for Atletico Madrid in their clash with Deportivo La Coruna
Stunning though it is to score five goals in a single game, Falcao is far from the first star to have achieved it. He follows in the footsteps of a number of players who have put on dazzling display over the years.
Fernando Morientes was the last Liga player to net five, as Real Madrid crushed Las Palmas 7-0 in 2002.
The Spaniard could have made it six had he been able to take advantage of a penalty in the closing minutes but he failed to convert.
Oleg Salenko is still the record-holder for the most goals scored in a World Cup game, after he hammered five goals home in Russia’s clash with Cameroon in 1994.
Despite taking the victory 6-1 the team still did not manage to progress into the knockout stages, though Salenko did net once more against Sweden, making him the joint top-scorer in the competition.
The list wouldn’t be complete of course without a mention of Lionel Messi’s haul against Bayer Leverkusen.
The Argentinian superstar set a new Champions League record with his sweep of five goals earlier this year, and the 7-1 win took Barcelona through to the tournament quarter-finals.
Kris Boyd has impressively managed to score five not once, but twice, and against the same team!
The first opportunity came in 2004 when the Scot blasted five past Dundee United, taking Kilmarnock to a 5-2 victory.
In 2009, he repeated the performance, this time playing for Rangers, and in the process surpassed Henrik Larsson as the Scottish Premier League's all-time top scorer.
Alan Shearer rose to the challenge in 1999. With two penalties and three strikes, he helped Newcastle to an 8-0 drumming of Sheffield Wednesday. No less than you would expect from the all-time leading scorer in the Premier League.
Andy Cole also scored a quintuple in the Nineties, and was in fact the first Premier League player to do so. When facing off against Ipswich Town in 1995, Cole added five to the 9-0 scoreline for Manchester United.
Jermain Defoe became the third player to score five goals in a Premier League (after Cole and Shearer).
Three of his five goals in Tottenham’s 9-1 defeat of Wigan in 2009 came in the space of seven minutes, making it the second fastest hat-trick in top-flight history.
The game was also only the second instance where a Premier League side had scored nine times in one game.
Malcolm Macdonald, otherwise known as ‘SuperMac,’ made 14 appearances for England, but only one put him in the history books.
In a 1975 match against Cyprus, Macdonald used his head to great effect, scoring all five of England’s goals at Wembley.
The stunning feat occurred after England manager Don Revie allegedly told Macdonald that he would never pick him again unless he scored.
Blackburn suffered from the brilliance of Dimitar Berbatov in 2010, when the Rovers went 7-1 down to a jubilant Manchester United. The Bulgarian was surprised by his own success, having scored his first goal in 11 games during the second minute of the match.
Frankie Bunn astounded himself and his teammates by going one better than all the Premier League stars, scoring an amazing six goals in one game.
Oldham humiliated Scarborough in the third round of the League Cup with an emphatic 7-0 victory.
Bunn still holds the Football League Cup record for the most goals scored by a single player in a match.
Ted Drake was the most prolific scorer of all, after netting seven against Aston Villa in 1935.
Drake still has an unrivalled strike record, having scored 139 goals in 184 starts.
Playing for Arsenal against Villa, Drake managed the incredible seven goals in his typical fearless style, despite playing with heavy strapping on his knee.
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