Schalke’s American teenager Matthew Hoppe scored a hat-trick on only his fifth Bundesliga appearance to carry the struggling side to a 4-0 victory over Hoffenheim and snap the Royal Blues’ 30-game winless streak in the league.
Hoppe, who made his Bundesliga debut in November, chipped the ball over keeper Oliver Baumann after a superb pass by Amine Harit to finish off a quick break three minutes before half-time. The pair combined perfectly twice more for the 19-year-old Hoppe to score again in the 57th and 63rd minutes.
Morocco international Harit then turned scorer by drilling in their fourth goal after 80 minutes as Schalke climbed off the bottom of the table.
“I have no words for this day. I cannot really describe it,” said a beaming Hoppe, holding on to the match ball. “Just very happy.” The California-born player joined Schalke in 2019 from the Barça Residency Academy in Arizona.
Schalke, whose last league win was back in January 2020, were a defeat away from matching Tasmania Berlin’s German top-flight record of 31 matches without a win from the 1965-66 season.