Premier League’s best-ever penalty taker
Jimenez extends record as Premier League’s best-ever penalty taker
Mexican forward adds to his perfect spot-kicks record as Fulham win at Sunderland
Jimenez is the only player to have taken and converted 13 spot-kicks, with Manchester City icon Yaya Toure having the next best 100-per-cent record on 11 penalties.
Former Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United and Fulham striker Dimitar Berbatov is another player with a perfect record, having successfully taken nine spot-kicks.
For some players, a single miss is all that separates them from a perfect spot-kick record.
Chelsea’s Cole Palmer and Man Utd’s Bryan Mbeumo lost their perfect records last season.
Palmer converted his first 12 penalties in a row, but his 13th Premier League penalty was saved by Mads Hermansen when Chelsea beat Leicester City 1-0 in March.
Palmer has since scored five more spot-kicks to give him an overall penalties tally of 18 scored from 19 taken.
Mbeumo’s record ended in May last season, when he was at Brentford, after missing his 11th spot-kick. His tally currently stands at 10 out of 11.
Southampton legend Matthew Le Tissier’s name is synonymous with penalty-taking excellence, having scored 25 of his 26 Premier League penalties – a 96.2 per cent success rate. He holds the record for the most penalties taken and only missing once.
Le Tissier’s lone miss, with only the third spot-kick of his Premier League career, came against Nottingham Forest in 1993, and he would never make the same mistake again. He netted his next 23 penalties, an incredible run.
Danny Murphy was similarly clinical, scoring 18 of his 19 spot-kicks and thwarted only by Man City goalkeeper Joe Hart when taking a penalty for Fulham in 2008.
As for current Premier League players, West Ham United’s Callum Wilson leads the way in almost-perfect records, having scored 16 of his 17 penalties. His only miss came when Cardiff City goalkeeper Neil Etheridge saved his penalty for AFC Bournemouth in August 2018.
