Throughout a brilliant career filled with historic trophies and incredible goals, Lionel Messi has broken almost every record in football. However, look closely at the data and you will find a more complicated story. Statistics show that the Argentine star finished his career holding the record for both the highest number of penalty attempts and the most missed penalties in the game’s biggest competitions.
Football experts point out that these numbers do not mean Messi was bad at taking penalties. Instead, they show just how much responsibility he carried. As the main penalty taker for Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain, Inter Miami, and the Argentina national team, Messi was always the one trusted to take the shot when the pressure was highest.
The FIFA World Cup offers the clearest example of this pattern. From his first tournament appearances up to the 2026 World Cup, Messi took eight penalties during normal play. This is more than any other player in World Cup history. Out of those eight tries, he scored four times and missed four times, putting him at the top of the list for both penalties taken and penalties missed.
Messi did not take any penalties during the 2006 or 2010 World Cups. His first big miss came at Russia 2018, when Iceland goalkeeper Hannes Halldórsson saved his shot in a 1-1 draw. Four years later in Qatar, Messi experienced both sides of the coin. He scored a penalty against Saudi Arabia but later saw his shot saved by Poland’s Wojciech Szczęsny. Despite that miss, he kept his confidence and scored crucial penalties against the Netherlands, Croatia, and France, helping Argentina lift the trophy.
His World Cup journey ended with two more penalties in 2026. Austria goalkeeper Alexander Schlager saved his shot in the group stage, and Egypt’s Mostafa Shobeir did the same later in the tournament. In comparison, Cristiano Ronaldo scored four out of his five World Cup penalties, Neymar scored both of his two attempts, Harry Kane scored six out of seven, and Robert Lewandowski missed his only World Cup penalty.
Away from international football, Messi’s club numbers show a similar story of high volume and occasional heartbreak. In the UEFA Champions League, he took 23 penalties—the most in tournament history—scoring 18 and missing five. Cristiano Ronaldo is just behind him with 22 taken and 19 scored. Meanwhile, Lewandowski has the best efficiency, scoring 19 out of 20, and Kane scored 15 out of 17.
In Spain’s La Liga, Messi’s long years at Barcelona placed him at the top of the chart with 74 penalties taken, leading to 60 goals and 14 misses. Ronaldo finished his time in Spain just one attempt behind with 73 penalties, scoring 61 and missing 12. Neymar only took 10 La Liga penalties during his time in Spain, missing just once.
In total, across his entire club career in Spain, France, and America, Messi took 116 penalties and missed 27 of them.
Ultimately, sports writers say these records are simply a result of Messi playing at the top level for so long. The more penalties a player takes over twenty years, the more chances they have to miss. The fact that every manager and teammate kept choosing Messi to take the shots proves how much they trusted him. Even with the misses, he will always be remembered as the player who stepped up when his team needed him most.
