Lionel Messi recently gained attention during Inter Miami’s match against Charlotte FC due to a missed penalty using a Panenka-style attempt. This miss, the 32nd penalty failure of his professional career, has reignited comparisons between him and Cristiano Ronaldo regarding their penalty-taking performances. For almost two decades, Messi and Ronaldo have dominated world football, leading their clubs and countries while also being their teams’ primary penalty takers. Ronaldo has taken 210 penalties, scoring 177 and missing 33, resulting in a success rate of 84.29%. Meanwhile, Messi has taken 145 penalties, scored 113 and missed 32, with a 77.93% success rate. Messi’s miss also ended a nearly three-year streak of successful penalty conversions in regular gameplay, excluding shootouts. His last in-game miss occurred at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. Since then, Messi had successfully converted six of his in-game penalties for both Argentina and Inter Miami.
