Cristiano Ronaldo ranked as the third biggest penalty merchant of the 21st century
Former Barcelona, Real Madrid and Manchester United stars are among the biggest ‘penalty merchants’ of the 21st century.
The term ‘penalty merchant’ has become increasingly common on social media over the past few years and refers to players who rely on penalties in order to inflate their scoring numbers.
Of course, scoring penalties is a skill in itself and shouldn’t be regarded as a bad thing, but that’s the world we’re now living in.
Since the year 2000, here are the 10 players with the highest percentage of their career goals being penalties.
Note: In order to qualify for this list, a player needs to have scored at least 300 career goals since the year 2000.
10. Wayne Rooney – 13.1%
With 13.1% of Rooney’s goals being scored from the penalty spot, he earns a place in our top 10, ahead of the likes of Lionel Messi (12.5%) and Robert Lewandowski (12.6%).
In total, the former United striker scored 366 goals throughout his career, with 48 of those strikes coming from the penalty spot.
Interestingly, Rooney only boasted a penalty conversion rate of 78% throughout his career, which is the worst of any player on this list.
9. Edinson Cavani – 13.3%
The Uruguayan has scored 62 spot kicks throughout his career, meaning that 13.3% of his goals have come from the penalty spot.
He scored the bulk of his penalties while playing for Napoli and PSG, although he did share the penalty duties while playing in France.
8. Kylian Mbappe – 14.0%
As of writing, the Frenchman has scored 54 penalties for club and country, with a conversion rate of 80.5%.
He became PSG’s chief penalty taker during his last two seasons with the club and he’s already scored 10 spot kicks since joining Real Madrid last summer.
Since joining Real Madrid, 19.6% of his goals at club level have come from the penalty spot.
7. Mohamed Salah – 14.6%
Salah has built a reputation as one of the most inevitable players in Premier League history.
Even when he’s having a quiet game and isn’t involved much in general build-up play, he always seems to pop up with a goal or assist in the dying embers of the game.
Prior to joining Liverpool, Salah had never taken a penalty at club level, but since then, he’s become an efficient scorer from the penalty spot.
In total, 14.6% of his career goals have come from 12 yards out.
6. Zlatan Ibrahimovic – 15.3%
Ibrahimovic boasted a penalty conversion rate of 83.7% which is higher than that of an average striker.
In total, he scored 567 goals throughout his career, with 87 of those goals being penalties. That means that 15.3% of his total career goals were from the penalty spot.
He was particularly efficient at scoring penalties while playing for PSG, as he converted 32 of the 37 penalties that he took while playing in France.
5. Erling Haaland – 16.6%
Haaland has made a name for himself as arguably the most ruthless finisher of his generation.
He’s broken countless scoring records since making his debut and is on course to retire as one of the highest scoring players in football history.
The Man City star is also a handy penalty taker, having scored 52 spot kicks throughout his career so far.
4. David Villa – 17.1%
Amazingly, Villa only took two penalties while playing for Barcelona and boasted a 50% success rate from the spot in that time.
Other than Barcelona, he was the chief penalty taker at pretty much every other club that he played for.
He was particularly ruthless from the spot while playing for Valencia and New York City.
In total, he scored 73 penalties for club and country, which accounts for 17.1% of the total number of goals that he scored during his career.
3. Cristiano Ronaldo – 18.8%
Having earned the nickname ‘Penaldo’ from the modern generation, we can confirm that Ronaldo isn’t the biggest penalty merchant of his generation.
However, having scored 178 penalties as of writing, he has scored and taken more spot-kicks than anyone else on this list.
The Portuguese forward has become increasingly prolific from the penalty spot in recent years, having scored 51 penalties in the last five years alone.
While the 40-year-old has scored more penalties than most, he’s also scored the second-most amount of open-play goals in the 21st century, only trailing behind Messi.
2. Harry Kane – 19.7%
With an 88.7% conversion rate from the penalty spot, Kane is one of the most ruthless spot-kick takers of his generation.
As of writing, he’s scored 477 goals for club and country, with 19.7% of those goals being penalties.
Since joining Bayern Munich, he’s been especially prolific from the penalty spot, having scored 26 of the 27 penalties that he’s taken for them.
READ: Harry Kane is on the cusp of smashing one of Cristiano Ronaldo’s greatest records
1. Neymar – 20.4%
When you think of Neymar, the first thing that comes to mind is probably his silky dribbling skills or elite playmaking abilities.
However, scoring penalties has always been a strength of his, having converted 91 of the 133 penalties that he’s taken throughout his career.
In total, that accounts for 20.4% of his total number of career goals, meaning he is technically the biggest penalty merchant of his generation.
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