Scoring from 12 yards isn’t as easy as it looks with some of the best football players in the history of the sport guilty of missing many penalties. Despite this, there are some very good penalty takers in the modern game who are able to block out the noise and pick their spot.
Typically, every team has a designated spot-kick taker and this player will be able to thrive under pressure and have an accurate ball-striking technique. However, even the most consistent penalty-kick takers can be prone to the occasional error, with goalkeepers such as Emi Martinez being known for his ability to save penalties.
On this list of the players with the most penalties missed, there are some surprising inclusions, such as spot-kick expert Cristiano Ronaldo, who ranks highly. With that in mind, here are the 12 players who have missed the most penalties in the 21st century.
Misses in penalty shootouts have not been counted in the individual tallies. And if two players are level on the number of penalty misses, then the player who has the worst conversion rate will rank higher.
12
Sergio Aguero
Penalty Misses: 14
The Argentine had a 77.4% conversion rate from penalties, which is far from being considered poor. However, this number is inflated due to the sheer number of penalties that the striker took. He scored 48 during his illustrious career and missed 14.
Aguero will be remembered for his pathetic penalty attempt in his final appearance for Manchester City. The talented forward tried an audacious panenka, which was caught with ease by Chelsea goalkeeper Edouard Mendy. This was a costly miss too, as in the second half Chelsea came from behind to win the Premier League encounter 2-1 in the dying moments.
11
Antonio Di Natale
Penalty Misses: 14
Veteran Antonio Di Natale had a wonderful career and will be remembered more for his impressive performances in Serie A rather than his penalty misses. He won the Serie A top goalscorer award in 2010 and he also won the Serie A Italian Footballer of the Year award in the same year.
One year later he reclaimed the top goalscorer award after another brilliant league campaign. The lethal finisher retired in 2016 as Udinese’s all-time top scorer with 227 goals to his name. Out of the 44 spot-kicks Di Natale took, he missed just 14, giving him a 75.8% conversion rate.
10
Harry Kane
Penalty Misses: 15
Harry Kane is in the conversation when you think of the greatest penalty takers of all-time. The Englishman is usually ice-cold from 12 yards, often smashing the ball into the corners with power and pinpoint accuracy. He has a mightily impressive 88.2% conversion rate, the highest of any player on this list, having scored 112 of his 127 attempts.
For his current club, Bayern Munich, he has scored 41 of his 44 attempts from 12 yards, while for England, he has been successful with 26 of his 31 spot-kicks.
He isn’t automatic from 12 yards, though. Of his 15 missed spot-kicks, his most famous came in England’s defeat to France in the 2022 World Cup. He had the opportunity to equalise late in the quarter-final tie, but Kane blazed his effort over the bar, with England eventually losing 2-1.
9
Edinson Cavani
Penalty Misses: 16
The striker has missed 16 penalties since 2001 and, despite a somewhat solid 79.7% conversion rate from the spot, he is in the top ten for most missed penalties in the 21st century. The Uruguayan was Napoli’s primary penalty taker, and although he scored the majority of his spot kicks for the Italian side, he did miss some crucial ones too.
Cavani, known for his poacher-like qualities, was never the designated penalty taker at Paris Saint-Germain. The 39-year-old had competition from world-class superstars such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Neymar in the early stints of his spell in France and this was before Kylian Mbappe had arrived in the French capital.
Likewise, at Manchester United, Cavani never took a penalty outside a shootout, and this was because of the presence of Cristiano Ronaldo, Bruno Fernandes, Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford, who were all ahead of him in the spot-kick pecking order.
At his final club, Boca Juniors, he scored three of his five attempts from 12 yards.
8
Kylian Mbappe
Penalty Misses: 16
For as incredible as Kylian Mbappe is in front of goal, the fact he has missed from 12 yards on 16 occasions throughout his career is a huge surprise. His latest miss came when his stoppage-time spot-kick was saved in Real Madrid’s 1-0 defeat against Real Betis in their La Liga clash in September 2026.
He will go down as one of the greatest goalscorers of all time, and maybe the fact he’s trusted with penalty efforts for both club and country means he’s bound to miss a fair few more than others around him.
7
Ronaldinho
Penalties Missed: 16
Generally, you wouldn’t associate penalties with the former Barcelona and AC Milan man, but he was clearly trusted from the penalty spot.
Ronaldinho did in fact miss 16 penalties. However, three of these spot-kicks were taken before 2001 and therefore aren’t included in this ranking. Despite converting most of his penalties, the ambitious playmaker made a name for himself for taking free kicks. Ronaldinho would often deploy an unusual but effective strategy, which entailed striking the ball underneath the wall rather than over or around it.
6
Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Penalty Misses: 17
Zlatan Ibrahimovic is a player who loves being in the spotlight. The Swede has scored some of the best goals in the most pressured situations, winning cups and leagues for a variety of different teams.
With that being said, Ibrahimovic took it upon himself to take penalties throughout his career and he stepped up to take 104 penalties. Despite this, the pressure of taking a penalty gets to even the best players at times and therefore his 17 penalty misses are more than understandable. Ibrahimovic, who retired at the age of 41, scored 87 goals from the penalty spot at an 83.6% conversion rate.
5
Francesco Totti
Penalty Misses: 18
Francesco Totti will go down as one of the best penalty-takers in the 21st century, yet he finds himself ranked highly on the list too. The striker scored so many goals during his playing days and, as expected, he has a conversion rate above 80%.
Amazingly, Totti didn’t miss a single penalty during his final four and a half seasons, converting 13 consecutive penalties at the back end of his career. The Italian did miss another two penalties in his career, but this was in 2001 and is therefore not counted in his tally. The versatile forward spent his entire career at Roma, winning the Serie A title, two Coppa Italia and two Supercoppa Italiana titles.
4
Ciro Immobile
Penalties Missed: 19
Immobile is best known for his spell at Lazio, where he holds the record as the club’s all-time top goalscorer. Furthermore, he also sits eighth on the all-time list of Serie A top goalscorers, which is another significant accomplishment for the striker.
The Italian missed 19 penalties in his career, which gives him an 81.9% conversion rate from 12 yards out. In August 2026, he decided to retire, so he won’t have to worry about climbing any further up this list.
3
Neymar
Penalty Misses: 22
Neymar has stepped up to take penalties for club and country throughout his career and he has never shied away from this kind of pressure. The flamboyant winger will go down as one of the best takers of the modern generation, despite missing 22 penalties so far in his career.
Neymar has a slow run-up and typically goes for placement over power. The Brazilian has scored 97 penalties, which gives him a very respectable 81.5% conversion rate from the penalty spot. The 34-year-old has been the primary penalty taker for Paris Saint-Germain, Santos and the Brazil national team, while he took fewer penalties at Barcelona due to Lionel Messi being the main taker.
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