Jip Janssen’s remarkable performance against Den Bosch

Janssen scored exactly five goals in a single match last season. On 3 May, Kampong’s penalty corner specialist accounted for almost his team’s entire tally in the spectacular home match against Den Bosch. Janssen scored four times from penalty corners and once from a penalty stroke. His fifth goal made it 5–3, but the goal-scoring spree was not over yet. Kampong eventually won the thrilling encounter 6–5.

No other player scored five goals in a single league match last season. Timo Boers, Struan Walker and Rik Sprengers came closest, each scoring four goals in a single match. In total, thirteen different players in the men’s competition scored at least one hat-trick. Between them, they accounted for 23 matches in which three or more goals were scored.

A five-goal haul is also historically rare. Since the Hoofdklasse began in 1973, 997 hat-tricks have been recorded. Only 56 times has a player scored at least five goals in a single match. In 45 of those instances, the tally stood at exactly five.

Moreover, this was not Janssen’s first match in which he scored at least five goals. In March 2023, he was prolific, scoring no fewer than seven times for Kampong in the away match against Voordaan (0–12). He is only the eleventh player in the history of the Hoofdklasse to have scored at least five goals in multiple matches.

For Janssen, his five-goal haul against Den Bosch remained his only hat-trick of last season. The defender finished the regular league season with eleven goals: ten from penalty corners and one from a penalty stroke.