62% Conversion: Why Are Defenders Still Taking Penalties At the World Cup?

Defenders, specifically centre-backs, have missed penalties at an alarming rate during the 2026 World Cup. But has it always been this way? Are defenders genuinely worse penalty takers than everyone else?

With Switzerland locked at 2-2 in their last-16 penalty shootout against Colombia and with a kick in hand, centre-back Manuel Akanji stepped forward with the chance to put his side 3-2 ahead.

He paced out a long run-up, took a few deep breaths and then… blazed his effort way over the bar.

The Inter defender joined Lucas Herrington, Harry Souttar (both Australia), Jonathan Tah (Germany), Fabián Balbuena (Paraguay) and Davinson Sánchez (Colombia) as centre-backs to miss penalties in shootouts at the 2026 World Cup.

Five of those six, including Akanji, didn’t even need the goalkeeper to make a save. Their attempts either struck the crossbar or went flying over it.

Quite why Akanji remains on penalty duty is curious. The former Man City defender has taken four penalties in major tournament shootouts across the World Cup and European Championship and has converted just one. He’s now missed each of his last three.

Fortunately for Akanji, his skied spot-kick was not terminal. That was thanks, in no small part, to Sánchez, whose own effort three kicks earlier crashed off the underside of the crossbar and stayed out.

Given we’ve seen a lot of central defenders step up in shootouts and subsequently miss, it’s worth asking the question: are defenders actually good at taking penalties?

Unless your centre-back happens to be Sergio Ramos or Fernando Hierro, two centre-halves who were objectively excellent from the spot, it rarely feels like a reassuring sight when a defender walks up to take a penalty. The vibes are not good.

And what we have seen at this World Cup largely supports that feeling. During shootouts, centre-backs have the lowest conversion rate of any position at the tournament, scoring just five of their 11 attempts (45.4%).

But has it always been this way? Are defenders genuinely worse penalty takers than everyone else? It would be understandable if they were, in fairness. Their primary responsibility, after all, is keeping goals out rather than scoring them.

Let’s look at all World Cup and European Championship penalty shootouts to compare conversion rates by players’ positions. We’re not able to separate ‘defenders’ into ‘centre-backs’ and ‘full-backs’ in this historical analysis, but it should still be fairly indicative as a catch-all bucket.

Historically speaking, defenders have converted penalties at the lowest rate of any position in major international tournament shootouts.

Across World Cups and European Championships, they have scored 110 of 160 attempts, at a conversion rate of 68.8%. That’s quite easily the lowest rate of any outfield position. As you might expect, forwards lead the way, converting more than three-quarters of their penalties.

However, once we separate the two tournaments out, we get a slightly different picture.

Looking solely at World Cup shootouts, defenders remain the weakest-performing outfield positional group. Their conversion rate is 62.0%, while forwards continue to lead the way at 73.2%.

Data from the Euros, though, tells a different story.

Firstly, everybody improves. Overall conversion rates rise from 68.6% at World Cups to 77.0% at European Championships. That jump is interesting in itself.

But perhaps more surprisingly, defenders come out as the most successful outfield positional group, albeit by a very slim margin. They convert their spot-kicks during Euros shootouts at a 77.9% rate, slightly ahead of forwards (77.8%).

There are no doubt numerous factors behind the differences between the World Cup and Euros conversion numbers; not just for defenders but across the board.

One of the immediate conclusions to jump to is the idea that the World Cup represents a unique level of pressure. Penalty shootouts on football’s world stage are simply more nerve-racking.

Another idea is that the World Cup has traditionally been a larger tournament than the European Championship. A broader pool of teams may naturally introduce a wider range of penalty takers, potentially diluting the overall quality compared with the more concentrated talent at the Euros.

Theories aside, what is very clear from the data is that at World Cups, defenders have struggled more than any other position when it comes to scoring in shootouts. The 2026 World Cup is following suit.

Following the recent misses from Sánchez and Akanji, it will be interesting to see whether teams rethink their takers, potentially asking more attack-minded players to step up.

Then again, there’s always another option: let the goalkeeper take one.

Only one goalkeeper has ever taken a penalty in a men’s World Cup or European Championship shootout, and he scored. Against England at Euro 2004, Portugal’s Ricardo famously removed his gloves before saving from Darius Vassell, and then stepped up to slot home the winning penalty.

So that means goalkeepers have a flawless 100% conversion record. Perhaps somebody should have mentioned that to Colombia goalkeeper Camilo Vargas…

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