If Cristiano Ronaldo admits he is number 2 on the list of the world’s worst penalty takers, then perhaps no one dares to admit he is number 1. He just failed to take a penalty kick in his team’s 1-0 victory over the Republic of Ireland early this morning.
In the 75th minute of the match against the Republic of Ireland, Portugal was awarded a penalty kick due to defender Dara O’Shea handling the ball in the penalty area. Captain Cristiano Ronaldo of the home team excitedly stepped up to take the penalty kick. If successful, he will surpass Carlos Ruiz – the retired Guatemalan legend – to become the player with the most goals in the history of World Cup qualifying (currently, both have 39 goals). But Cristiano Ronaldo had a shot that went into the ground. CR7’s penalty kick was aimed at the center of the Republic of Ireland’s goal, the shot was not too strong. Although the opponent’s goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher leaned in the wrong direction, he still managed to use his foot to clear the ball to save his team. This is the second time in his career that Ronaldo has failed on the penalty spot when facing the Republic of Ireland in the World Cup qualifiers. Previously, in the match that took place in September 2021, he was also humiliated by goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s poor performance on the 11-meter mark in the match against the Republic of Ireland made him set an unwanted record in his career. He continued to affirm his position as number 1 in the list of the worst penalty takers of all time. Specifically, the defeat against goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher brought the total number of missed penalties of CR7 to 34. What is extremely interesting is: Right behind Ronaldo in the list of people who missed the most penalties is his “arch-rival” Lionel Messi with 32 missed penalties. More specifically, throughout his illustrious career as a player, up to the recent match against the Republic of Ireland, Cristiano Ronaldo has taken a total of 212 penalties. He has only beaten the opponent’s goalkeeper 178 times (the penalty success rate is only a modest 83.96%). Of those 34 unsuccessful penalties, 10 were when CR7 played for the Portuguese national team, and 24 were at club level. It is worth mentioning that the Portuguese player loves taking penalties, to the point of arguing fiercely with his teammates to take the 11-meter kick.
Cristiano Ronaldo began to be noticed and assigned to take penalties since his time at MU under Sir Alex Ferguson. Initially, he shared the penalty kick responsibility with teammate Wayne Rooney. Then, when he moved to Real Madrid, the Portuguese player was given priority to “contract” all the penalty kicks that the Madrid capital team was awarded. It can be affirmed that penalties account for a large part of CR7’s total of 946 goals – the world football scoring record.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s missed penalty kick against goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher has caused him to receive a lot of ridicule. On a football forum, a fan commented that CR7 once said that his biggest obsession in life was… hair, because “teeth and hair are the corners of a person”. But in reality, it is the penalty kicks that really haunt the Portuguese player. It has somewhat affected the title of “the player with the most goals of all time” of the striker currently playing for Al Nassr Club.
Back to the events in Portugal’s recent 1-0 win over the Republic of Ireland. Cristiano Ronaldo had a disastrous day. Besides the missed penalty kick, CR7 also caused extreme disappointment through the statistics: He had no successful dribbles, no assists, was flagged offside twice, and had 6 shots off target out of 7 attempts to shoot at the away team’s goal.
