Which Players Have The Best Premier League Penalty Records?

Is there a more valuable player to his team, club or country, than Harry Kane? The Tottenham striker has emerged as one of the best players in the world after leading England to the delayed finals of Euro 2020 last summer.

And his form for Tottenham last season, that began with him being public enemy number one after informing Spurs he wanted a move to Manchester City, ended with Kane being shortlisted for the PFA Player of the Year award.

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Awkwardly, the move to Manchester never happened and Kane managed to turn a booing crowd around by helping Spurs clinch the fourth Champions League place at the expense of north London rivals Arsenal.

Four of the 17 league goals Kane scored last season came from the penalty spot. The most crucial of those came against Burnley in north London that secured a 1-0 win in their penultimate fixture that kept Spurs on track for fourth spot.

Indeed, he is making quite a name for himself from the spot. In recent seasons, Kane has a perfect penalty record, scoring the last 21 he has taken for Spurs. The last time he failed to find the back of the net from 12 yards was when Spurs drew 2-2 at Liverpool in February 2018 when Loris Karius saved his effort.

Overall, in his Premier League career, Kane has a 90.6% success rate, scoring 29 of the 32 taken, to sit fourth in the list of the league’s all-time penalty kings.

Two successful kicks from his next two will see Kane move above Leighton Baines and, more interestingly, if he can convert his next six, he will move above Arsenal legend Thierry Henry into second place, behind Matt Le Tissier, whose record of 24 Premier League spot kicks from 25 looks to remain intact for a few seasons yet.

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Best Penalty Conversion Rates In The Premier League

• Matt Le Tissier 24 from 25 (96%)
• Thierry Henry 23 from 25 (92%)
• Leighton Baines 20 from 22 (90.9%)
• Harry Kane 29 from 32 (90.6%)

Faith In Fernandes Falls After Failures

It wasn’t that long ago that Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes was being hailed as the best penalty taker in Europe. The Portuguese star converted 13 of his first 14 spot kicks after arriving at Old Trafford in the January transfer window in 2020.

In his first full season with United, Fernandes was the catalyst helping the side finish second in the league behind Manchester City and Le Tissier’s record from 12 yards was in danger of being equalled or bettered by the United midfielder. But things have changed.

Last season, with his international team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo joining him at Old Trafford, Fernandes struggled for form. Those woes matched those of the team who finished sixth with 16 points fewer than the previous season.

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Despite Ronaldo’s remarkable penalty success rate throughout his illustrious career, Fernandes started last season on penalty duty for United.

Although when he squandered a chance to equalise by firing the ball over the bar in a 1-0 defeat at home to Aston Villa, Ronaldo replaced him as spot kick taker, scoring all three he took.

It could have been four had Ronaldo not allowed Fernandes to take a 57th minute penalty at the Emirates in April which would have levelled the score at 2-2. The effort hit the post and rebounded to safety as Arsenal won 3-1.

As a result of those failures, Fernandes’ success rate has dropped from 92.8% to 81.25%.

United are under new management with Erik ten Hag taking over and one of the decisions facing the former Ajax manager is who will be the club’s first choice penalty taker.

If Ronaldo stays at Old Trafford, as ten Hag wants, then the 37-year-old might be on penalty duty with Fernandes playing second fiddle.

Jorginho’s Dependability Drops After Incredible Run

Chelsea midfielder Jorginho is another who saw his penalty dependability drop last season. The Italian built a reputation as one of the Premier League’s leading penalty takers who could be relied upon to convert from 12 yards.

In fact, 19 of the 20 goals Jorginho has scored for the Blues have come from the penalty spot.

Jorginho joined the Blues with a decent penalty record from his time in Serie A with Verona and Napoli, converting six of his seven attempts. After moving to Stamford Bridge, Jorginho started with a bang, converting his first five penalties.

That run ended on September 20, 2020 when Alisson Becker saved his effort in a 2-0 home defeat to Liverpool.

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Following that failure, the midfielder converted his next 12 spot kicks in the Premier League. Four of those dozen spot kicks came in December 2021, when the Italian scored two in a 3-2 win over Leeds at the Bridge, a fortnight before converting another brace in a 3-1 win at Aston Villa.

While converting all 10 in the league in 2021, Jorginho missed a penalty for Italy in the Euro 2020 final shootout against England, but fortunately for him, the Italians went on to lift the trophy at Wembley.

This year has not been so kind for Jorginho. His first penalty attempt in the league came in April, when his tame effort was easily saved by West Ham keeper Lukasz Fabianski in the 87th minute when the game was goalless.

Luckily for him, Christian Pulisic bailed him out by scoring a late winner for the Blues in injury time.

Even though his success rate has dropped from 89.47% to 85.7% (18 conversions from 21 attempts), Jorginho’s record is impressive enough that he has retained penalty duties this season for Thomas Tuchel’s side.

Indeed, he got Chelsea off to a winning start by converting a penalty in their 1-0 win over Everton on the opening day of the 2022/23 season. And if he can go on another run of scoring 11 in a row, his conversion rate will jump to a very respectable 90.6%.