László Kiss becomes the first substitute to score a hat-trick in a World Cup match, 1982
Chris Oakley | 23 April 2026
Before any World Cup tournament, so-called experts and pundits offer their predictions on who might win the upcoming festival of football. Between the obvious contenders and rank outsiders sit the 'dark horses' — those teams deemed unlikely to win but who cannot be completely written off. In 1982, one of those teams was Hungary, who remarkably booked their ticket for Spain having topped a qualifying group ahead of England. Their run in the Finals would ultimately be brief, but at least it featured one shining moment of achievement.
Hungary's footballing greatness peaked in the 1950s with a group of players known as The Mighty Magyars. With the great Ferenc Puskás as their captain, they created their own early form of Total Football two decades before the Dutch, and it earned them a place in the 1954 World Cup Final. Hungary went on to reach the quarter finals in 1962 and 1966, but that golden era was fading fast when they set about qualifying for the World Cup in Spain in 1982.
Hungary's footballing greatness peaked in the 1950s with a group of players known as The Mighty Magyars. With the great Ferenc Puskás as their captain, they created their own early form of Total Football two decades before the Dutch, and it earned them a place in the 1954 World Cup Final. Hungary went on to reach the quarter finals in 1962 and 1966, but that golden era was fading fast when they set about qualifying for the World Cup in Spain in 1982.
Their first qualifying match in UEFA Group 4 came seven months after England had opened the group with a 4-0 win over Norway in September 1980. By the time Hungary travelled to play Switzerland in April of the following year, the group was already wide open with every other team already having dropped points.
After three games, Hungary were undefeated but they met their match when England travelled to Budapest in June 1981. Ron Greenwood's side were in erratic form and desperate for consistency, but two goals from Trevor Brooking and one from Kevin Keegan were enough to inflict a first defeat on the Hungarians. This proved to be a brief setback for Hungary who returned to form by picking up five points from their next three matches against Norway, Romania and Switzerland - enough to ensure qualification for the 1982 World Cup.
Hungary's 1982 World Cup final tables.
Two months later, Hungary were the 21st of 24 teams to be drawn in a chaotic and error-prone ceremony in Madrid to determine the groups for the finals. Kálmán Mészöly's side were placed in Group 3 along with reigning champions Argentina, 1980 European Championship runners-up, Belgium, and El Salvador, making their second appearance in the World Cup. Getting through to the second round wouldn't be easy, and three points from a possible six wouldn't necessarily be good enough. If it was, a healthy goal difference might make all the difference.
Hungary's opener pitted them against El Salvador in Elche. The Central Americans had arrived in Spain only three days earlier, and with very little recent match practice at that. A civil war in El Salvador had limited the number of opportunities they had to hone their skills prior to the competition. Despite this, coach Mauricio Rodríguez (a player during El Salvador's only previous World Cup in 1970) instructed his team to attack from the start. This backfired almost instantly when Hungarian captain Tibor Nyilasi scored after just four minutes.
Though it's fair to say his colleague in goal, Ferenc Mészáros, had to deal with a number of shots from El Salvador's players, Hungary were never at great risk of losing their lead. They ended the first half 3-0 up and could easily have been further ahead. Nearly ten minutes after the restart, Hungary went 5-0 up through Antwerp striker László Fazekas, and it was at this point that László Kiss was brought on as a substitute for András Törőcsik.
The score says it all towards the end of the El Salvador v Hungary match.
Kiss played his domestic football for Budapest club Vasas. Having made his debut for Hungary in 1979, he'd notched up seven goals for his country, two of which came in the penultimate World Cup qualifier against Norway in 1981. Just ten minutes after taking to the field in Elche, El Salvador pulled a goal back against Hungary through Luis Ramirez Zapata. His celebrations were like those of a World Cup winner, but Kiss was about to single-handedly extinguish any such fantasy.
In the 69th minute, Kiss made it 6-1 to Hungary with a firm shot he received straight from a corner. Still reeling from that, El Salvador conceded a seventh a minute later. A further two minutes had passed when László Kiss chipped Luis Guevara Mora in the opposition goal from the corner of the penalty area to make it 8-1. Mora was nearly substituted with the score at 4-0, but Mauricio Rodríguez realised it was probably better to have only one humiliated goalkeeper in his squad rather than two, and quickly reconsidered.
With 14 minutes of the game still remaining, Kiss scored his third. Mora ran out far from his goal line to deal with a cross, but could only guide the ball into the path of the Hungarian who smashed it back under him and into the net. The score was now 9-1, but there was still time for a tenth goal to be scored seven minutes from time by Nyilasi, who doubled his own personal tally in the process.
From start to finish, László Kiss had managed to score a hat-trick in seven minutes, becoming the fastest scorer of a hat-trick in a World Cup finals match, and the first substitute to score a hat-trick. To add greater significance to the occasion, Hungary also became the first team to score ten in a World Cup finals match, equalling their own nine-goal margin of victory against South Korea in 1954.
For all their record-breaking antics, Hungary were unable to build on the explosive start to their 1982 World Cup campaign. They were comfortably beaten 4-1 by Argentina in their second game, and could only draw 1-1 with Belgium in their third. They finished with three points, one less than Group 3 runners-up Argentina, and subsequently failed to qualify for the second round of the competition.
Hungary's last appearance at a World Cup was 40 years ago, but László Kiss still has his place in the record books. He once said: "Sooner or later, somebody will break [my] records, but while they still belong to me, they obviously feel nice." It seems unlikely anyone will take that pride and satisfaction away from him any time soon.