Penalty taking- it’s not often considered to be a desirable practice for many soccer players, especially considering the potential blowback that players can endure from fans if they miss from the spot.
Fans aren’t always so enthusiastic either about this aspect of the game, especially when their team is renowned for failing more often than not in the dreaded penalty shootout (see: England in every major penalty shootout ever). Despite these concerns, penalties are an essential and exciting aspect of the game, and the ability to be a penalty taker is a positive quality, indicating a level of skill, temperament and nerve that other players may lack.
With this in mind, we’ve put together a list of 5 players who we think are some of the best penalty-takers in the game:
Alan Shearer
Penalty conversion rate: 83%
Shearer is widely regarded as one of England’s greatest forwards and prolific goal scorers, having been the first player to score 100 Premier League goals, while he has 260 goals from long distance to his name. He was also a prolific penalty taker, as the former Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United striker converted 56 out of 62 penalties taken during his career, giving him an impressive 83% conversion rate.
Cristiano Ronaldo
Penalty conversion rate: 83%
The Portuguese forward isn’t just considered one of the greats of the game, but also one of the best penalty-takers in the history of football. Besides his incredible goalscoring prowess in general over his nearly 20-year professional career, Ronaldo is an expert penalty taker, having scoffed 146 penalties in his career, with only 28 misses, for a conversion rate of 83%.
Frank Lampard
Penalty conversion rate: 86%
The former Chelsea and England midfielder enjoyed a storied career, as he was a crucial part of Chelsea’s rise in English football in the mid-2000s. At the end of his carer, he held the record for most goals by a midfielder in the Premier League and for scoring the most goals from outside the box with 41. Lampard also had a natural instinct for finding the back of the net from the penalty spot, as he has scored 43 out of 50 penalty goals attempted, representing an astounding 86% success rate. Beyond those raw stats, he also scored the critical, match-winning penalty for Chelsea against Liverpool as the club won its first UEFA Champions League.
Jorginho
Penalty conversion rate: 94%
Jorge Luiz Frello, otherwise known as Jorginho, is quite simply one of the best penalty-takers ever, with an incredible 94% conversion rate from the penalty spot. The Brazilin hardly ever misses, with his standard move of tricking the goalkeeper into going in the opposite direction that he intends to shoot. While he did miss some penalties in the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers, his 41 penalty goals during his football carer are still an impressive achievement for the Chelsea player.
Steven Gerrard
Penalty conversion rate: 94%
The England and Liverpool legend was as cool a customer as you could get from the penalty spot, with an astonishing 94% accuracy rate and 46 penalties scored in his career. This included 32 successful penalties in the Premier League, which ranks him 3rd on the all-time penalty-scoring list in the Premier League era. He also tended to score heavily against the Red’s bitter rivals Manchester United, with his 9 penalty goals scored against them a firm indication of his nerves of steel in a traditionally high-pressure match.
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