Florian Sotoca set the tone from the first day of this 2022/23 financial year. Author of RC Lens’ first hat-trick in Ligue 1 Uber Eats since that of Toifilou Maoulida in April 2010, the Artesian number 7 immediately placed this season under a lucky star for the RCL. Loïs Apenda then took over. Triple scorer on the 13th day, the young Belgian striker repeated the feat on the 27th day. Better, in this match against Clermont Foot (0-4), he signed the fastest hat-trick in the championship over the last 50 years by scoring his three goals in 4 minutes and 31 seconds.
With three hat-tricks, the 2022/23 Sang et Or season is already entering club records. This is the highest total for the RCL in the same financial year since the title season (1997/98). Of the last twenty hat-tricks scored by the northern team in the top flight, i.e. since the mid-1960s, it has reached such a level only in one other season, during the 1966/67 championship, with the performances of Georges Lech (x2) and Paul Courtin.
Three hat-tricks in title year
With her two hat-tricks achieved this season, Loïs Openda succeeds Anto Drobnjak in the history of RC Lens. The Montenegrin striker was the last player to achieve this feat, the year of the title. During the 1997/98 financial year, remembered by RCL fans, the former Bastiais had frozen the Vélodrome on the 4th day (2-3), before offering a breathtaking spectacle on the 16th day against AS Cannes (5-4). A little later, on April 15, 1998 on behalf of the 33rd day, Tony Vairelles had also scored a hat-trick during the Lensois outing against Bastia (5-1) and brought his club a little closer to its first Ligue 1 title Uber Eats.
Roger Boli is talking about him
Among the attackers who marked the history of RC Lens, Roger Boli also found the net three times in the same game. Last RCL player to have finished top scorer in the championship, tied with Youri Djorkaeff (AS Monaco) and Nicolas Ouédec (FC Nantes), the Franco-Ivorian saw three times against Le Havre AC (5-1), April 2, 1994 A month and a half later, he finished at the top of the scoring charts, with 20 goals.
Another historical striker of the club, Daniel Moreira also experienced the joys of a hat-trick. During a 2001/02 season that ended on the second step of the podium in Ligue 1 Uber Eats, after an exciting mano a mano with OL, the native of Maubeuge had unleashed a nice « hat trick » in the first period on the lawn of FC Lorient (2-3, 10th day). Before him, Philippe Vercruysse, then great hope of French football, had impressed in November 1983 by slamming a hat-trick at only 21 years old against SC Toulon (5-1). He had thus succeeded Didier Six in the artesian prize list, he who had signed the previous hat-trick of the RCL during his only season in Blood and Gold (1977/78).
The last 20 hat-tricks of RC Lens in Ligue 1 Uber Eats:
12 mars 2023 : Loïs Openda against Clermont Foot (0-4)
October 28, 2022 : Lois Openda against Toulouse FC (3-0)
August 7, 2022 : Florian Sotoca against Stade Brestois 29 (3-2)
10 avril 2010 : Toifilou Maoulida against US Boulogne CO (3-0)
May 14, 2005 : John Utaka against Stade Rennais (5-2)
October 13, 2001 : Daniel Moreira against FC Lorient (2-3)
25 avril 1998 : Tony Vairelles against SC Bastia (5-1)
November 15, 1997 : Anto Drobnjak against AS Cannes (5-4)
August 22, 1997 : Anto Drobnjak against OM (2-3)
2 avril 1994 : Roger Boli makes au Havre AC (5-1)
November 2, 1984 : Cherif Oudjani against Tours FC (6-1)
November 15, 1983 : Philippe Vercruysse against SC Toulon (5-1)
February 3, 1978 : Didier Six against OGC Nice (5-4 defeat)
September 24, 1976 : Slobodan Jankovic face au PSG (3-3)
October 31, 1975 : Joachim Marx against OL (3-1)
October 6, 1973 : Romain Arghirudis makes au SC Bastia (3-1)
June 15, 1968 : Roger Wicke against OM (5-1)
January 8, 1967 : Georges Lech against FC Nantes (4-0)
November 20, 1966 : Georges Lech against Stade de Reims (5-2)
September 23, 1966 : Paul Courtin against FC Sochaux-Montbéliard (2-5)
