A Flaw in the Star
Messi’s Unflattering Record: He’s the Only One to Have Missed Three World Cup Penalties!
He is undisputedly one of the greatest soccer players of all time, holding numerous records—almost all of them positive. But since the match against Austria, Lionel Messi has also had to claim a most inglorious record of his own.
For all his talent, Lionel Messi has never been among the very best penalty takers. Before the match against Austria, he had converted 116 penalties but had also missed 32. Solid, but by no means outstanding.
At the World Cup, Messi actually has a negative record from open play. In 2018, he missed a penalty in the match against Iceland that would have secured a potential opening-match victory, resulting in a 1-1 draw; in 2022, he was denied by Poland’s goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny in the group stage, though the Argentines still managed an important 2-0 victory to top their group.
Now alone ahead of Gyan
With that missed penalty, however, Messi had tied Asamoah Gyan’s record. The Ghanaian had previously been the only player in World Cup history to have missed two penalty kicks (excluding penalty shootouts). Now the superstar is the first soccer player to whom this has happened three times—while converting only two.
He still has a perfect record in World Cup penalty shootouts, as the Argentine converted his attempts in the 2022 quarterfinal against the Netherlands as well as in the final against France.
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