There are a hundred and one ways to have a good football weekend in Europe, and only one of them involves scoring three times. Achraf Hakimi chose the loudest option available to him.
The Paris Saint-Germain defender completed his first career hat-trick in a 5-1 Ligue 1 rout of bottom club Le Havre, and did it in a way that underlined something particular about him: he was involved in every single goal.
Five Goals, One Player At The Centre Of All Of Them
Hakimi is the captain, and in this particular week he also carried the match on his back. He scored three, and then set up the other two — providing for Mika Godts and Senny Mayulu as PSG inflicted a seventh defeat in nine matches on Le Havre.
Context matters here. PSG are the defending European champions and the leaders of Ligue 1, and they were facing the team at the bottom of the table. A five-goal demolition of the worst side in the division is the sort of result that gets filed away as a formality.
Hakimi made sure it was not filed away as a formality. He is also the reigning African Footballer of the Year, and he is only ever going to be as good as the season he is in.
Why a hat-trick from a full-back stands out
It is worth remembering how rare this is. Hakimi is a defender who operates at the extreme edge of the attacking line for his side. Goals from him are not scheduled; they are the by-product of a player who spends his life making runs into the box at exactly the right moment. When one of those players finds the net three times in one match, it is a genuinely unusual afternoon rather than a routine.
The Rest Of The Continent
That match was the headline, but it was far from the only African name on the weekend’s score sheets.
Nicolas Jackson continues his Chelsea escape
In England, Nicolas Jackson continued to defy critics after a difficult spell at Chelsea by scoring his eighth goal in twelve appearances — this time for Aston Villa, who drew 1-1 with Fulham. He coolly slotted home from a pass by Johan Manzambi for a fifth Premier League goal in five games. Whatever doubts followed him out of Stamford Bridge, they are not in the numbers any more.
Taiwo Awoniyi finally gets Coventry off the mark
Taiwo Awoniyi netted his first league goal for Coventry City in a 3-1 win over Sunderland that hauled the Sky Blues out of the relegation zone. The Nigerian made the most of his first start since September, winning the possession himself before surging into the box and firing into the bottom corner.
There is a particular kind of pressure that comes with being a country’s most watched footballer abroad, and Awoniyi’s relief at scoring his first for the club will have been understood by every Nigerian who follows the Premier League.
Real Madrid’s record signing makes the point
Across the continent, Yan Diomande completed the scoring before half-time as Real Madrid beat Racing Santander 3-0 in La Liga. The Ivory Coast teenager, a record signing for the fifteen-time European champions, lashed home from the edge of the box after 37 minutes. Teenagers do not usually arrive at Real Madrid and start scoring straight away, which is exactly why it is worth watching.
Nzola, Guirassy, Maza and El Khannouss
Angola’s M’Bala Nzola gave mid-table Cagliari the lead midway through the first half before Serie A pacesetters Lazio hit back to win 2-1 in Rome. Nzola’s goal meant he has scored in successive matches for the first time in seventy months.
In Germany, Serhou Guirassy put Borussia Dortmund on course for an impressive 2-2 Bundesliga draw at leaders Bayern Munich. After Ballon d’Or winner Harry Kane missed a penalty, Dortmund went to the other end of the pitch and the Guinea striker equalised, taking his tally to eight in all competitions this season.
Leverkusen were outplayed by Stuttgart in a 4-2 defeat, but Algeria midfielder Ibrahim Maza left the pitch with his head held high, showcasing his dribbling before scoring after 79 minutes with an unstoppable header. Bilal El Khannouss provided the creative spark for the same side, scoring with a superb low shot early in the second half and helping create Stuttgart’s fourth for Ermedin Demirovic.
Why This Weekend Matters For Nigeria
There is a specific reason Nigerian supporters follow the European leagues so closely. It is not only about watching compatriots. It is about what happens to Nigerian football when its best players are visible on the biggest stages in the world.
Awoniyi’s first goal for Coventry came in a match that moved a club out of the relegation zone, in a season where the Premier League round-ups keep producing surprises. Hakimi’s hat-trick came in a European champions’ league that PSG are leading on the back of nights like this one, and where the Champions League table has them at the summit. Every one of these performances is a piece of marketing for the talent pipeline back home, and that argument is made loudly at every meeting of the federation and club officials, including in the ongoing football reform talks.
The domestic game feels the effect too. Clubs across the country are competing for attention and players in a crowded market, and the gap between what Nigerian football produces and what it manages to sell has been a running argument for years — the pressure behind a Rivers United side planning a packed NPFL and CAF Champions League double campaign, and behind continental ambition generally, including in a historic WAFCON run that ended in a shootout.
What To Watch Next
Hakimi’s form will be monitored more closely than usual now. A hat-trick usually gets a player scrutinised by every opponent in the next fixture, and the questions will be about whether Paris Saint-Germain can keep him at the front of the system for a domestic and European season.
Jackson’s rate is remarkable and unlikely to continue indefinitely. Awoniyi will be judged on his next few appearances rather than one good afternoon. And the teenage forwards who are arriving in Madrid and Paris are the ones whose numbers will matter most in two or three years.
For the wider African game, the pattern of the weekend is worth noting. These were not isolated moments. They were wins, and results that moved tables — the kind of weekend that makes the case for the African player’s place in European football louder than any argument.
Conclusion
Hakimi will get the headlines because three goals deserve headlines. But the weekend belonged to a continent having a good time, and to a generation of players who are increasingly difficult to ignore.
Five goals in one match, a teenager scoring for Real Madrid, a forward finally settling at Coventry, a midfielder producing the moment of the weekend against Stuttgart. It was a good weekend for African football, and there will be another one soon.
