- Portret
Hattrick heroes: Paul Litjens, the first penalty corner cannon
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, including the iconic Paul Litjens.
Looking back on the early years of the men's top competition, Paul Litjens was the Hoofdklasse's first real penalty-coring canon.
The legendary Kampong and Dutch national team player scored 182 goals in his first seven seasons in the competition: with 20, 28, 28, 18, 26, 24 and 38 goals in succession, he became top scorer in the Hoofdklasse, a unique run.
The goalgetter with the razor-sharp shot would eventually end up with 267 goals in the Hoofdklasse, claiming the fifth place on the all-time top scorer list. When you score that many times, chances are you'll score high on the Hoofdklasse hat-trick rankings. Litjens made 29 hat-tricks, a number surpassed only by Roderick Weusthof (34) and Ties Kruize (31).
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Many goals and many cards
Litjens did not only stand out in the Hoofdklasse for his deluge of goals. The Kampong goalgetter also regularly picked up a yellow card. In the 1973-1974 season, he got booked so many times in a row that the KNHB decided to suspend him for that, making Litjens the first player to be suspended for a week because of his 'misconduct'.
Not all of Litjens' cards were related to a foul or persistent remarks against the referees. On 12 November 1973, in the away match against HGC, he pulled a prank. At a free hit for Kampong, he offered referee Boitelle his stick with the gesture of you take it. There was a good laugh in the field, but Boitelle did not appreciate the joke: he sent Litjens to the side with a yellow card.
