England hat-trick hero Bukayo Saka said he is proud to be a part of an elite list after playing a key role in helping the Three Lions win a thrilling bronze final, www.aclsports.com reports.
It might not have been the ending they were targeting pre-tournament but, having downed France in an exhilarating bronze final, England have registered their best finish at a FIFA World Cup since 1966.
At the heart of an extraordinary penultimate fixture at the FIFA World Cup 2026 was Three Lions winger Bukayo Saka. The Arsenal dynamo became just the fourth Englishman to score a hat-trick at the global finals, after Geoff Hurst in 1966, Gary Lineker 20 years later and then Harry Kane at Russia 2018.
Reflecting on the game afterwards, the 24-year-old forward hailed it as a special night in Miami, where he etched his name alongside Gary Lineker and Harry Kane by becoming the third England player to score at least three goals in two different World Cups.
“That was fantastic. It was enjoyable and an amazing achievement of course,” Saka told FIFA after the game.
”I’ve just been told there’s only four players for England that scored World Cup hat-tricks, and you know who those players are as well. That is an elite list to be part of. It makes me very proud.”
Despite Saka and his teammates wishing their tournament had ended in the north-east instead of the south, Miami will always be remembered by England fans as the city where the nation recorded its greatest World Cup achievement on foreign soil.
“I think it was more about finishing the tournament strong because as a group that’s what we deserve. Obviously we believe as a whole we should have gone all the way and that we should be playing tomorrow, not today. But the reality is that we were playing today and we just wanted to finish strong. I’m happy we’ve done that.”
Having rotated his starting XI for England’s final outing, England coach Thomas Tuchel will be delighted with how those changes played out. In their concluding fixture of the tournament, England drew level with France, with 20 goals, as the top-scoring nation, with Saka later revealing his coach’s parting words to the squad.
“He just told us how proud he is of us and that he’s going to miss us. We’re going to miss each other. You know, the six, seven weeks we bonded like crazy. That was the message, and we leave with a proud feeling of what we’ve done today as a team, and we’ll focus on winning next time.”
