10 worst active penalty takers in the 21st century

Bhargav
Sweden v France - UEFA Nations League
Sweden v France - UEFA Nations League

#3: M'Biaye Niang (Rennes/Senegal) - 6 misses out of 15 penalties (40%)

M'Baye Niang
M'Baye Niang

Since making his professional debut for Caen in 2010-11, M'Biaye Niang has scored 67 goals in 292 appearances for as many as eight different clubs.

After several loan spells during his six-season stint with Italian giants AC Milan, the Senegalese striker has enjoyed his most prolific scoring spell with current club Rennes for whom he has scored 29 times in the last two seasons.

However, despite a slight upturn in his scoring fortunes in recent times, the 28-year-old has a pretty dismal record as a penalty-taker. Niang has converted just nine penalties from 15 attempts, with the striker scoring four times from seven penalties last season.

#2: Fernando Llorente (Napoli/Spain) - 7 misses out of 17 penalties (41%)

Fernando Llorente
Fernando Llorente

In a near two-decade long professional career that started with Basconia in Spain's Tercera division (Fourth Division), Fernando Llorente has scored exactly 200 goals in 635 cumulative appearances for eight different clubs. The 35-year-old has scored a further seven in 24 senior appearances for Spain.

Llorente has scored at least ten league goals a season on seven different occasions, most recently doing so for Swansea in the 2016-17 Premier League.

Despite his decent scoring prowess, Llorente's scoring record when it comes to penalties is pretty underwhelming. In 17 penalty attempts by the 35-year-old for club and country, only ten have gone in.

Considering that record, it is perhaps not surprising that Llorente hasn't taken a penalty since missing from the spot in a 2011-12 La Liga game against Granada.

#1: Edin Dzeko (AS Roma/Bosnia and Herzegovina) - 9 missed out of 20 penalties (45%)

Edin Dzeko has a surprisingly bad record as a penalty-taker.
Edin Dzeko has a surprisingly bad record as a penalty-taker.

Edin Dzeko became the first player to score 50 goals in three top five leagues across Europe when he scored in a 2017-18 Serie A game for AS Roma.

The 34-year-old Bosnia and Herzegovina striker had previously racked up goal-tallies of 85 for VfB Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga and 72 for Manchester City in the English Premier League.

Dzeko has scored 292 goals in 662 cumulative appearances in club football and is Bosnia and Herzegovina's all-time top-scorer with 59 goals in 108 games. He is a proven goal-scorer but is often not talked about as one of the best in the continent.

However, despite his goal-scoring prowess, Dzeko's success rate from the penalty spot is pretty underwhelming. He has missed as many as nine penalties from 20 attempts and hasn't taken a penalty for club or country since 2017-18.

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