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Even the GOAT's had his moments.

Ranking Lionel Messi’s worst ever penalties after his embarrassing MLS panenka

Nestor Watach •
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Lionel Messi might be superhuman – but the one aspect of his game that’s been fairly ordinary is his penalty record.

He’s scored 111 of the 142 penalties he’s attempted in his career, with a perfectly respectable 78% conversion rate, but Messi usually prides himself on being far more than just perfectly respectable.

Here are six of Messi’s worst and most memorable penalty misses.

6. Cruyff tribute vs Celta Vigo

Kicking things off with a fun one.

Of course, this one isn’t a proper missed penalty. But officially, in the statistical record, it goes down as one.

…as well as an assist.

Aside from Johan Cruyff and Jesper Olsen for Ajax originally, we can’t many examples of that happening. Thierry Henry and Robert Pires infamously ballsed up their attempt.

Were this a genuine attempt on goal, this might be the worst penalty ever taken. But Messi knows what he’s doing. Even when he misses he’s a genius.

5. Champions League – PSG vs Real Madrid

Thibaut Courtois saved a fairly tame effort from Messi in a tight and tense Champions League knockout clash between PSG and Real Madrid in 2022.

Kylian Mbappe spared his blushes on the night with a late match-winner, but Messi’s saved spot-kick proved costly in the end as Los Blancos came back with a classic remontada in the second leg.

It was around this time that Messi changed his technique, and saw his penalty success rate increase exponentially in the latter period of his career.

“We were practising penalties in Paris (PSG), and he said, ‘F**k, how can you take a penalty like that?’” Neymar recalled.

“I looked at him and said, ‘Are you f**king crazy? You’re Messi, for f**k’s sake! If I can take it like that, you can too. Just fucking practice. Practice and try (laughs)’. Then he started laughing and said, ‘I’ll try too’. That’s when it started.

“In the World Cup he won (2022), for example, he scored several penalty goals like that. The only one he didn’t take while looking at the goalkeeper, he missed.”

Turns out Argentina have a Brazilian to thank for their third World Cup. Who knew?

4. Champions League semi-final vs Chelsea

Penalty misses don’t get much more painful than this one.

Messi was at the absolute peak of his powers in the year 2012. He finished that year’s La Liga campaign with a mindblowing 50 goals and notched a surely unsurpassable 92 in all competitions that calendar year.

But Barcelona lost on on the title to Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid that year, while hitting the crossbar from 12 yards out was a major reason for their shock elimination to Chelsea in the Champions League semi-finals.

“I am still hurting from losing the semi-final against Chelsea with the penalty I missed, and La Liga with the defeat to Madrid at Nou Camp,” he recalled later that summer.

“They are both thorns in our side.”

3. Copa America Centanario vs Chile

Messi skied his effort as Argentina lost a second successive Copa America final on penalties to Chile.

The pain proved too much to bear and in the immediate aftermath, he announced his decision to retire from representing Argentina.

2. 2018 World Cup vs Iceland

Messi’s Argentina redemption story is well established by now.

It didn’t take him long to reverse his decision and come out of international retirement, but he’d still have his fair share of heartbreak to stomach before the ultimate trophy-laden redemption in his golden years.

Jorge Sampaoli’s wildly dysfunctional Argentina kicked off their World Cup campaign in Russia with an unconvincing draw against debutants Iceland.

Their performance was exemplified by Messi taking a meek penalty, easily saved by Iceland’s keeper Hannes Halldorsson.

How can the greatest footballer in history look so unsure of himself?

1. Failed Panenka vs Charlotte FC

After Messi fluffed a golden opportunity to give Inter Miami a first-half lead, they ended up losing 3-0 to Wilfried Zaha and Dean Smith’s Charlotte FC.

Charlotte forward Idan Toklomati scored his first career hat-trick, capping it off by showing up the 38-year-old icon with a successfully dispatched penalty.

This one’ll make a few headlines and was far from Messi’s finest hour, but you imagine it’ll be quickly forgotten. Inter Miami are flying high in MLS and Messi’s stats are otherwise outrageous.

It doesn’t have nearly the significance or costliness of considerably more high-profile missed spot-kicks in the Champions League or major international tournaments, but on a purely aesthetic judgement, you can’t beat a failed panenka.

We’ve seen worse, and Charlotte’s keeper Kristijan Kahlina had to stretch to save it, but you always look daft if you try this technique and your bluff gets called. We don’t make the rules.

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