The 10 players who have missed the most penalties since 2001: Messi, Ronaldo…
Former Barcelona, Real Madrid and Manchester United stars are among the 10 players who have missed the most penalties since 2001.
Even the most consistent spot-kick takers are guilty of missing a penalty every now and again. That fact is highlighted in this article as there are numerous superstars among the players with the most misses.
We’ve crunched the numbers and have found the 10 players with the most penalty misses since the year 2001.
Note: misses in penalty shootouts have not been counted. When two players are tied on the number of penalty misses, we have ranked them by who has the inferior penalty conversion rate.
10. Edinson Cavani – 14
The Uruguayan had all sorts of competition to be the main penalty-taker during his stint with PSG as he had to contend with the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe.
He did take his fair share of penalties during his time in France to be far and he was Napoli’s main penalty-taker for a good three years too.
In total, he’s had a conversion rate of 81.6% from the spot which is decent going. However, his 14 missed penalties still earn him a spot on this list.
9. Sergio Aguero – 14
The Argentine forward was Manchester City’s main penalty-taker for around a decade and while he scored way more than he missed, he still earns a spot on this list.
Throughout his career, he had a penalty conversion rate of 77.4% which is pretty standard when compared to other forwards of his generation.
Arguably, his most infamous penalty miss came in one of his final appearances for Man City as he attempted to panenka Edouard Mendy, only for the Chelsea goalkeeper to stand his ground and swat the poorly taken spot-kick away.
8. Antonio Di Natale – 14
The former Udinese star converted 75.8% of the penalties that he took throughout his career, having scored 44 and missed 14.
After spending 12 years with Udinese, the Italian forward hung up his boots in 2016 as the club’s all-time top scorer with 227 strikes to his name.
7. Ciro Immobile – 16
He’s already off the mark for Besiktas this season, having converted all three penalties that he’s been given. While he’s yet to miss a penalty since moving to Turkey, he has missed 16 throughout his career so far.
In total, he boasts a conversion rate of 83.3% from the penalty spot.
6. Ronaldinho – 16
While his technique from the penalty spot was often on point, the Brazilian icon did scuff a few spot-kicks over his 17-year career.
He notably missed one against England during an international friendly back in 2013 as Joe Hart made an excellent double save to deny the Brazilian maestro.
To be fair to Ronaldinho, he scored way more than he missed as he boasted an impressive 81.1% conversion rate from the penalty spot.
In total, he did miss 17 penalties over the course of his career, although one of those misses came prior to 2001.
5. Zlatan Ibrahimovic – 17
Having converted 87 spot-kicks over the years, Ibrahimovic comfortably ranks among the top penalty-takers of the 21st Century.
However, having taken a total of 104 penalties throughout his career, it’s understandable that even he’s made the odd blunder every now and again.
READ NEXT: The 3 players in football history to have scored more goals than Messi & Ronaldo
TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every player to score a Premier League penalty for Man Utd?
4. Neymar – 18
There can be little doubt that Neymar ranks among the best penalty-takers of the modern generation, but even he manages to land a place on this list with 18 penalty misses.
As of writing, he’s scored 87 penalties which gives him an overall conversion rate of 82.9% for club and country which isn’t bad at all.
For PSG in particular, Neymar was absolutely lethal from the penalty spot as he boasted a 90.3% conversion rate while playing in the French capital.
It therefore won’t come as much of a surprise to learn that most of his penalty misses have been for Barcelona, Brazil or Santos.
TRY A QUIZ: Can you name the 20 footballers with the highest accumulated transfer fees?
3. Francesco Totti – 18
The legendary Italian boasted an 81.1% conversion rate from the penalty spot. All things considered, that’s a decent record.
Impressively, he didn’t miss a single penalty during his final four and a half seasons as a professional as he tucked away 13 consecutive penalties at the end of his career.
It’s worth noting that Totti did miss a total of 20 penalties throughout his career, although two of those misses came before 2001.
2. Cristiano Ronaldo – 30
With a conversion rate of 84.6% from the penalty spot, Ronaldo boasts a better penalty record than anyone else on this list. However, he’s still missed the second-most amount of spot-kicks since 2001.
When the pressure is on, CR7 usually steps up to the plate, although he has had a few notable misses throughout his career.
Impressively, he’s become even more prolific from the penalty spot with age. He’s scored 21 of the last 22 penalties he’s taken, with his most recent miss coming against Slovenia at Euro 2024.
1. Lionel Messi – 31
The idea that Messi is a bad penalty taker was put to bed once and for all during the 2022 World Cup as he had no problem scoring from the spot, despite being under immense pressure.
He has missed more penalties than any other player since the year 2001, but his penalty conversion rate of 77.9% isn’t too shabby whatsoever.
Perhaps his most costly non-shootout penalty miss came against Chelsea during the 2011-12 Champions League semi-final. Had he scored, Barcelona would have likely progressed to the Champions League final, but his spot-kick cannoned off the crossbar and the rest is history.