- Portret
Hattrick heroes: the impressive Zeller counter
In 52 seasons in the Tulp Hoofdklasse men's side, 966 hat-tricks have already been produced. In this series, we highlight some dreaded hat-trick heroes, such as German goal-scoring sensation Christopher Zeller.
Zeller is the proud owner of some fine premier league records. The penalty-corner specialist and striker played one season for Bloemendaal (2006-2007) and in that season literally scored on a conveyor belt for The Mussen, who captured their second title in a row that season.
After 22 games, there were 47 (!) goals behind Zeller's name: twenty field goals, 26 goals from penalty corners and one converted penalty stroke. This makes the German goalscorer the most prolific foreigner ever in a single premier league season.
Looking at the distribution of Zeller's 47 goals over the course of the season, he produced a hat-trick on average every three games, eight in total. In the 52-year history of the Hoofdklasse, only Ties Kruize achieved more hat-tricks in a single season: Klein Zwitserland's star made as many as 10 in 1980-81.
Crazy month
Zeller will not easily forget October 2006. That was when he scored at least three goals in four (!) games: three against Rotterdam (5-3 win), three against Eindhoven (10-1), five on visit to SCHC (3-7 win) and three against Pinoké (7-1). To this day, no one else in the Hoofdklasse has ever managed to produce four hat-tricks in the space of one month.
Zeller ended his short-lived adventure with Bloemendaal with the Golden Stick and the Golden Ball, awards for the Best Player and the Hoofdklasse's top scorer. He returned to Germany because of his studies, where he went on to play for Rot-Weiss Köln in the Second Bundesliga.
