Lionel Messi’s unbelievable mark repeated after 16 years when he failed to take any penalty kicks in the entire year 2023.

Rarely does Lionel Messi stand out with a negative statistic or one associated with not scoring a single goal. However, Argentina’s captain repeated what had never happened after 16 years, that is, Messi did not take any penalty kicks during the official time of a match throughout 2023.

During his time with PSG and Inter Miami, Messi was not responsible for making shots from 11 meters away because Kylian Mbappe and Josef Martinez were the designated penalty takers in each team, respectively. Messi’s last goal scored within the prescribed 90 minutes of an official match was none other than against France in the 2022 World Cup final.

Messi did not score from the penalty spot for the first time in 16 years. Photo: GETTY

From 2007 until last year, Messi scored at least one goal from the penalty spot in a calendar year. The first time El Pulga scored an 11m penalty was in the Argentina National Team’s shirt when playing a friendly match with Algeria.

On the other hand, Messi’s arch-rival Cristiano Ronaldo is having very good penalty kick performance this season. Accordingly, the Portuguese striker successfully completed 12/12 penalty kicks, a rate of 100%. More broadly, Ronaldo is the best penalty kicker in history with a total of 158 goals from penalties, achieving a success rate of 84.5%.

On the other hand, Messi had problems with his ability to shoot 11m at the beginning of his career. He successfully executed 103/139 penalties, reaching a rate of 77.7%. Remember, it was the superstar from Tango who failed to take a penalty kick in the 2016 Copa America final, causing Argentina to lose suddenly to Chile and lose the championship. That is also one of the saddest memories of his career. The illustrious career of the owner of 8 Golden Balls.