Who is The Best Penalty Taker?

Penalty is one of the most important factors that affect the game of football. A penalty can turn the game all over to a different side. In this article we will take a look at some of the best penalty takers in the Premier League. We are including all the top penalty takers in the history of this competition. Be ready for a jaw dropping blast.

Who scored 100% penalties in the Premier League?

Taking 10 penalties in the competition might not be a big deal as several players do it but scoring 100% from the penalties is a great achievement. Speaking of it, if it was asked as a quiz question, most people would opt for Matt Le Tissier but that would be wrong. 

This position is held by Manchester City midfielder and the dominant penalty taker of the club, Yaya Toure. The Ivorian star might not be cool enough to cut a cake on his birthday but he certainly holds a cool temperament from the penalty shot. 

Surprisingly, he took 11 penalties in the Premier League and converted every single of them into goals. He scored through every penalty achieving a 100% penalty scoring rate. The player with next most penalties and 100% scoring rate is Dimitar Berbatqv (9/9). 

You should know that seven of Toure’s 11 scored penalties turned out to be the winning goals in the game while the rest of five goals put Manchester City into the lead.

Matt Le Tissier conversion rate

It might come as a shock to few people but Matt Le Tissier has taken 26 penalties in the Premier League, more than most of the other players. Out of 26, he converted 25 into goals while missing just one spot kick in the competition. Only one player in the history of the Premier League could get the opportunity to save Tissier’s penalty. Do you know who that lucky man is? Nottingham Forest player Mark Crossley saved his only penalty in March 1993. 

This one penalty save turned out much more than just a save for Nottingham Forest. Forest used the penalty save to win 2-1 game that day at The Dell despite Tissier making amends after missing his 22nd minute penalty. 

It was Tissier’s third penalty in the Premier League that he missed after scoring the previous two. Since then, he never repeated the same mistake and went on winning the next 23 penalties consecutively so far. 

Tissier took his revenge. He made Nottingham Forest pay for that only penalty save by winning next four penalties against them in the Premier League including the three against his only penalty saver Crossley. 

Other Best penalty takers

After Yaya Toure and Matthew Le Tissier comes our Manchester City champ Danny Murphy. Murphy scored 18 of the 19 penalties he took in the Premier League. With a penalty conversion rate of 95%, Murphy just missed one penalty for Fulham at Manchester City in April 2008. Joe Hart, the Goalkeeper stole Murphy’s chance of recording 100% conversion rate. 

Although Murphy neutralised it by scoring from the rebound for Fulham, they went on to win the game 3-2 and score additional three crucial points to survive in the Premier League.

In fourth place, James Beattie with 16 scored penalties out of 17 while Julian Dicks is ranked fifth in the list of best penalty takers with 15/16 scored penalties. Both the competitors share the same conversion rate (94 %) of their penalties in the Premier League. 

Julian Dicks had a special penalty technique which favoured power but it was clearly not enough to get him a 100% scored penalties in the Premier League as David Seaman saved his penalty for West Ham against Arsenal in February 1996. If Dicks wouldn’t miss this penalty, he would have a 100% scored penalties. 

Considering all the players who have scored at least 20 Premier League goals, only Luka Mulivojevic (79%) has earned a higher proportion of score from penalties than Dicks did (63%). 

James Beattie, the fourth best penalty taker in the Premier League, only missed one penalty for Everton against Charlton Athletic in January 2006 when his opponent team player Thomas Myhre saved his penalty. Unfortunately, his first miss came from the first penalty he took in the initial 10 minutes of a match in the Premier League.

After top five penalty takers, Callum Wilson stepped in with 12/13 scored penalties and 92% conversion rate. Out of the players with at least 10 penalties, he has the best record from the spot with only one missed penalty out of 13. The Newcastle United’s striker’s only miss came against Cardiff City for Bournemouth in August 2018. Neil Etheridge became the goalkeeper to destroy Wilson’s record for 100% penalties.

Thierry Henry is the sixth on the list with 23/25 penalty score. Although he never got a Premier League penalty saved, he missed two of his 25 penalties taken in the Premier League. Two of his weirdest penalty misses came via hitting the post against two of the only three Finnish goalkeepers of the premier league. It’s weird but true. 

The other four players with at least 10 penalties in the Premier league have a same success rate of 91%. These successful players include current Aston Villa striker Danny Ings, Leighton Baines, the late Gary Speed and former Chelsea defender Frank Leboeuf. Three of the four players have taken the same number of penalties as well but Braines took the most. He has taken penalties twice as many as Ings and other two players. 

Braines took his first ever Premier League penalty in October 2014 against Manchester United with David de Gea ending his record of his first 14 penalties taken in the competition. 

Illustrious Penalty Record Facts

This is absolutely not a surprise that Alan Shearer, the Premier League goal scorer set the record for most penalty goals (56) as well as the most penalties taken (67) in the Premier League. Following him, Frank Lampard (43), Steven Gerrard (32), Harry Kane (30) and Mark Noble (28) come next in the Premier League penalty goal rankings. 

• Only three Premier League players have missed ten penalties in the competition including Alan Shearer, player with most penalty scores in Premier League, England’s all time goal scorer Wayne Rooney (11) and Teddy Sheringham (10). 
• The fourth most penalty scorer in the Premier League, Harry Kane has scored seven of his 30 penalties against Arsenal which is the most against a single opponent in a competition. 
• The Brazilian star Juninho Pernambucano was undoubtedly one of the most popular players in Premier League history but he was barely any good at penalties. In fact, he is regarded as one of the worst penalty takers of all time in the premier league with having taken only four penalties without scoring even one. 
• The Liverpool midfielder Jan Molby has the most Premier League goals, all scored by penalties (seven). On the other hand, the player to score most Premier League scores without a single score coming from penalty is Les Ferdinand (149 goals).
• There are three players in Premier League history who scored a penalty for four different clubs: Teddy Sheringham (Manchester United, West Ham, Spurs and Portsmouth), Yakubu (Portsmouth, Middlesbrough, Everton and Blackburn) and Darren Bent (Aston Villa, Sunderland, Spurs and Charlton).
• A last but not the least round of applause for Obafemi Martins and Bobby Zamora. Both the players scored a penalty with both right foot and left foot. It doesn’t just demonstrate their strength but also their confidence.