I would add Stoichkov to the 90s and Mendieta to the 2000s. I specifically do not remember the Spaniard missing any PKs.......
they were very good ones ... but they both scored <40PKs career! Let look at my list, I tried to put TOP3 each decade, with minimum 50PK taken and scored, to make the STATS look more meaningful. For example, 1- Most people would remember a Baggio, Zico, Maradona missing 1 pk at Wc level, but the FORGOT these legends did SCORE 100+ pks in career with very few missed! 2- It's always EASIER to score 20/25PKs than to score 60/70PKs ...
because they did NOT score more than 40PKs - does that answer your question? Stoitchkov scored exactly 40PKs career and Mendieta scored like 35+ (I think)
Best scored just about dozen ones (10 as his record claimed !!) His record showed 109 pks. How many goals Maradona got in whole career? you think only 300+??? Do NOT forget Maradona was the MOST FOULED player in history (or may be after Pele) So he earned quite A LOT (chances). Same situation was with Zico (140+ scored)
I'm surprised Mario Balotelli hasn't been mentioned in this thread. 13/13 on penalties in his career, I believe.
James, I'm sure you make up most of this stuff. The idea that Maradona or Pele are the most fouled players in history is complete supposition, but you try to make it a fact.
Maradona may have made many penalties with napoli, but with boca he didn't stop missing. At one point, he missed 5 in a row. I don't think you can seriously put maradona in this discussion.
Where do you get the "never missed" part from? He hit the post against Poland and from memory also had misses against Sunderland and Ipswich.
He started amazingly well. I think he scored his first 35 or something like that, but then later on he missed a number of them. According to ENB sports summary of the first 20 years of the Premier League Shearer scored 56 out of 68 in the PL. That seems lower than I had thought. Le Tissier was 24 from 24, Lampard 37 from 41, Unsworth 21 from 26, Henry 24 from 26.
Cuauhtemoc Blanco ranks in this. I´ve only ever seen him miss once! And thats only because he got cocky and wanted to embarass the goalkeeper. Towards the later years of his Career, about 4 years ago? He takes penalty kicks differently from anyone else in the world.
Riquelme is very consistent with his PK's but his miss with Villarreal vs. Arsenal in the CL will always tarnish his image.
FACT is that Maradona got most fouls in WC history (66-10) Well the FACT is that no other players suffered more, or at least NONE were claimed ... besides those 2 ... Unless you can "make up" for the 3rd player? don;t tell me Rooney? or Beckham LOL
So the World Cup, which makes up maybe 100th of a player's career is completely reflective? Why don't we extrapolate out the number of penalties that all players conceded at the World Cup only?
Now you;re talking apples to oranges ... I just state WC data as my least defense for your claim "I just make them up" in the muber of fouls suffered (remained unknown for almost every one). One could easily see Maradona suffering at least a few fouls per game if not worst ones.... on top of WC data "confirmed" that (thanks to Castrol) Like in the case you put Di Stefano as the :best AM /playmaker ... based on WHAT? your own eyes or some thing else - surely you do NOT have data to show Di Stefano having the best in vision and passing?!!! PLEEEEZZZZ I did not mean to critisize your judgement, but sometimes we have to ACCEPT there is a "grey area" (since no clear data to back up) in some cases, like vision, fouls suffer, good pass or stupid pass ...
Look I said people will help me with my "strawman" list ... and I am glad you did (for Shearer) I thought I had followed his games close, but I guess my memory was short ... I knew Maradona missed quite a few, but relatively to his scoring number (Again I need help) I "think" his stats are good to support for that. My point: For example relative to the number of chances, the best PK taker should have >96 to even >98% percent of successful rate. Condition at least >50 or 60 chances
I do not want to downplay what Maradona suffered but some things like broken ankles were also suffered by other great players. Think of Zico (knee issues, once a broken knee), Platini (ankle broken on three places, took almost a year of recovery) and many others around the same era. Furthermore, it is widely accepted that of all respectable leagues La Liga was the most violent one, with the most freedom and leeway for defenders. Maradona absolutely suffered a lot but played ultimately only two years (and one in Sevilla when the time and mindset was already changing). Someone like Kempes played for five consecutive seasons (in total nine seasons) and that eventually took its toll as well despite his immense physical strength (he was basically half of the player after four seasons). Same for other stars who played there. All in all there is no ultimate proof or plausible hints to suggest that he was clearly the most fouled player ever.
Because you are running wild with speculation here. There is no evidence whatsoever that either Pele or Maradona were the most fouled players in history. Is it plausible? Yes. But there is no evidence and you bandy these things around as if they are facts. Maradona suffered more fouls than anyone else at the World Cup >> He won more penalties than anyone else >> He took more penalties than anyone else >> He scored more penalties than anyone else. Despite the fact that he didn't win any penalties at the World Cup. You seem to pluck numbers out of thin air without any support for them. Surely you see that there is a vast difference between someone being the best in their position (an opinion) and them being the most fouled (something that should be a fact)?