12 Best Penalty Takers in Football History (Ranked)

Penalties are one of the most important set-pieces in football, and sometimes they can be the most decisive kick in a match. All finals will eventually result in a penalty shoot-out if the two teams can’t be separated in normal time, and in that instance it pays off to have some cool heads in your team who you can rely upon to do the business from 12 yards out.

Being a great attacker doesn’t always necessarily mean that you are also a great penalty taker. For example, Lionel Messi is arguably the greatest footballer, and one of the greatest goalscorers, the game has ever seen, but even he has missed almost a quarter of the penalty kicks he has taken throughout his footballing career.

Ranking factors

This list includes the 12 best penalty takers in football history who have been ranked based on the percentage of penalties they have stuck away in their career, not including penalty shoot-outs. To be eligible for this list, the player must have taken at least 50 penalties, which means that Matt Le Tissier, despite scoring all but one of the 48 spot-kicks he took throughout his career, does not make it in.

It also means the likes of Chelsea’s Cole Palmer, who in the 2024/2025 season set a Premier League record for most penalties scored without missing with 12, can not be included, though he would be eligible in a short time if his current form from the spot continues.

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12

Steven Gerrard

85% of penalties scored

Currently managing in Saudi Arabia with Al-Ettifaq, Steven Gerrard called time on his illustrious playing career in 2016 after spending a season with LA Galaxy in America. Prior to that, he had spent the entirety of his professional career with boyhood club Liverpool, for whom he made his senior debut in 1998 and went on to win numerous honours, including the 2005 Champions League.

A tenacious midfielder who was equally impressive in defence and attack, Gerrard stepped up to the penalty spot 55 times in his career, converting 46 penalties at a success rate of 85%. It is also worth noting that of the England international’s nine misses from 12 yards, five of them came in the last five years of his career.

11

Frank Lampard

85% success rate

Despite being a midfielder, Frank Lampard is one of the greatest goalscorers in Premier League history, with his 177 goals scored just during his time with West Ham United, Chelsea and Manchester City making him the sixth-highest goalscorer in the competition’s history. He is also Chelsea’s all-time record goalscorer, having scored 211 goals during 13 years at Stamford Bridge.

Throughout his career, Lampard was extremely reliable from the spot and took a total of 72 penalty kicks, scoring 11 of them. Arguably the most important one he ever scored was just a week after the death of his mother, which was scored during Chelsea’s 2008 Champions League semi-final against Liverpool, allowing the Blues to reach the final for the first time, having won 4-3 on aggregate.

10

Cristiano Ronaldo

85% success rate

Cristiano Ronaldo is a global superstar who has also earned his status as one of the greatest footballers in the history of the sport. The 910 official senior goals he has scored throughout his illustrious career makes him the greatest goalscorer of all-time, although figures for players such as Pele, throw this claim into disrepute.

A fact that is for certain is that Ronaldo is one of the most prolific penalty-takers in the history of the game, having taken 203 penalties in his career and scoring 172, as of March 2025. Such is the extent that the Portuguese international strives for perfection, it would hardly come as a surprise if he endures sleepless nights, replaying some of those 31 misses over and over in his head.

9

Erling Haaland

88% success rate

Norwegian international Erling Haaland has been a sensation from soon after his senior debut. It was with Red Bull Salzburg that he started to make a name for himself in mainland Europe, his form ultimately earning him a move to Borussia Dortmund just six months after his transfer to Austria. In 2022, Manchester City paid a release clause in Haaland’s contract to acquire his services, where he remains at the time of writing.

Already a treble winner and record holder of the most goals scored by one player in a Premier League season, Haaland has proved to be a reliable figure from the penalty spot. Of the 56 penalties he has taken so far in his career, he has missed just seven. Interestingly, be it for club or country, just two of those misses occurred before he made the move to Manchester.

8

Harry Kane

89% success rate

Harry Kane is one of the most composed and deadliest finishers of the 21st century and has an outstanding scoring record, sitting second in the Premier League’s all-time top scorers chart and top of England’s list of all-time greatest goalscorers. He has over 400 goals to his name for club and country and only turned 30 in July 2023.

Unsurprisingly, Kane has always been the first-choice penalty taker in whatever team he’s played in throughout his senior career, and has scored a very impressive 89 out of all 100 he has ever taken, giving him a success rate of 89%. However, the striker would most likely trade many of those in just for his spot-kick against France in the quarter-final of the 2022 World Cup to hit the back of the net, rather than fly over the bar.

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7

Robert Lewandowski

90% success rate

Robert Lewandowski is one of the greatest strikers of the 21st century and has been a formidable force at Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich and Barcelona. The forward scored over 500 goals across his spells with those three elite clubs and became Poland’s all-time record goalscorer in 2017, with his national team goal tally standing at 84, as of March 2025.

Lewandowski is equally clinical from the spot and has been entrusted with 98 penalty kicks throughout his career, scoring 88 of them. His first-ever senior penalty came in a 4-2 win for second-tier Polish side Znicz Pruszkow in August 2007, and less than six years later, he scored from 12 yards for Dortmund against Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-final.

6

Rogerio Ceni

90% success rate

Rogerio Ceni’s inclusion in this list is truly bizarre as the Brazilian was actually a goalkeeper, and yet he possesses one of the greatest penalty success rates of all time. In a 25-year career spent entirely at Sao Paolo, for whom he made well over 1,000 appearances, the shotstopper would frequently take their penalties and free-kicks and his total tally of 129 makes him the highest-scoring goalkeeper to have ever lived.

During his career, Ceni took 52 penalties and scored an extremely impressive 47 of them, which gives a success rate of 90%. He wasn’t quite as successful at the other end of the pitch as he faced 53 penalties throughout his career and saved just four of them, although there was a period during the 2000s where he was regarded as one of the top goalkeepers in the world.

5

Bruno Fernandes

91% success rate

Bruno Fernandes has served as Manchester United’s first-choice penalty taker since he first joined the club. Since his £47m move from Sporting Lisbon in January 2020, the midfielder has been a key player at Old Trafford and was appointed club captain in the summer of 2023 and part of his duties involves taking the team’s penalties.

As of March 2025, Fernandes has taken 65 penalties in his career, scoring 59 of them. As well as being the man to step up from the spot at Old Trafford, the Portuguese superstar also did the business at his previous clubs, including at Sporting where he was very much the talisman. His record from spot-kicks is second-to-none, and is by far and away the best of any player right now who has taken more than 50 penalties in his career.

4

Mario Balotelli

91% success rate

Mario Balotelli is one of the most notorious and unpredictable characters to ever grace the Premier League. His sheer talent was there for all to see, with the Italian striker winning the Golden Boy in 2010, but his attitude drew the ire of top managers such as Jose Mourinho and Roberto Mancini, and he has never come close to ever truly fulfilling his potential.

However, for all his erraticism, you can almost always count on Balotelli to score from 12 yards out. As of May 2024, the forward has taken 53 penalties in his senior career, on stages ranging from the Champions League to the Swiss Super League, and scored 48 of them, landing him a hugely impressive success rate of 91%.

3

Alan Shearer

92% success rate

Alan Shearer is the greatest goalscorer in Premier League history, with 260 goals to his name across four years with Blackburn Rovers and ten with his boyhood club Newcastle United. His clinical nature saw him set a joint-record for most goals scored in a single Premier League season in the 1994/95 campaign, which was eventually broken by Erling Haaland in 2023.

Shearer was also a superb penalty kick taker and throughout his 18-year career, he took 78 spot-kicks and scored 72 of them, which gives him a superb 92% success rate. Perhaps rather fittingly, the final goal of his career was a ferociously-hit penalty away at Sunderland in April 2006, which helped his beloved Newcastle record a dominant 4-1 victory over their arch rivals.

2

Marco van Basten

93% success rate

Marco van Basten is widely regarded as one of the greatest centre forwards in football history. He was a clinical goalscorer with Ajax for much of the 1980s before he transferred to AC Milan in 1987 and helped them win two European Cups before a series of ankle injuries forced him to prematurely retire in 1995, aged just 30.

Van Basten scored over 300 goals during his career, which included 51 penalties out of 55 that he took. This means the Dutchman’s penalty success rate was an outstanding 93%, and that figure could have been even higher had his sublime playing days not been prematurely curtailed due to injury.

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1

Rickie Lambert

94% success rate

A professional for nearly 20 years, Rickie Lambert was at the peak of his powers during his time with Southampton, who he joined from Bristol Rovers in 2009. Across the next five years, Lambert helped the club rise from League One, where they had been relegated to when he joined, back to the Premier League, earning promotion to the top flight in 2012.

It was in the Premier League where much attention was drawn towards Lambert’s penalty record, which was so strong that it drew comparisons to club legend Matt le Tissier. Lambert netted all 30 penalties that he took for the Saints, never missing a spot kick he was delegated while with the club.

(Penalty stats are via Transfermarkt and are accurate as of 18/03/2025)