FIFA World Cup 2026
penalty takers

Marko Arnautovic still looks like Austria's safest World Cup first call because the stronger competitive trail from 2024-25 still points to him. But the March 2026 friendly window gave Marcel Sabitzer the freshest direct...

Kevin De Bruyne is Belgium's strongest current direct penalty signal. The freshest competitive evidence is emphatic rather than thin: he scored both of Belgium's penalties in the 4-2 World Cup qualifying win away to Wale...

Bosnia and Herzegovina are no longer a pure blank file after the March play-offs. There still is not a clean recent Bosnia in-match penalty to settle the order by itself, so this should not be treated as a high-confidenc...

Luka Modric should now be treated as a high-confidence Croatia primary, with one important caveat: at his age, availability and minutes still matter. The deeper Croatia picture is a dual-taker system rather than a contra...

Czechia's March play-off run sharpened the file. Patrik Schick scored the in-match penalty against Republic of Ireland in the semi-final, which is now the strongest direct evidence in the current Czech trail. Tomas Souce...

UEFA's qualifier report states Kane added a first-half penalty as England sealed qualification in Riga. That keeps him as England's clear first-choice taker, with Bukayo Saka the strongest secondary on both club-level ro...

The FFF match report lists Mbappe scoring from the spot against Ukraine in a World Cup qualifier, which keeps him as France's clear first-choice taker. With Griezmann retired from internationals, the backup order is less...

Kai Havertz is now the best market-facing Germany primary. The strongest live evidence is the 30 March 2026 Ghana friendly: Havertz and Joshua Kimmich both started, and Havertz took and converted Germany's penalty. Haver...

Memphis Depay is the Netherlands' primary penalty taker when he starts. The 2025 evidence trail is strong enough to stop hedging: Depay took and scored the big senior penalties against Spain and Finland, while Cody Gakpo...

The match record shows Haaland missed an early penalty and still scored a hat-trick against Israel. The miss does not change the hierarchy; it is still direct evidence that he is Norway's first-choice taker. Martin Odega...

The match record shows Ronaldo took Portugal's penalty against Republic of Ireland, even though Kelleher saved it. That keeps him as Portugal's primary taker in the current cycle, with Bruno Fernandes the clearest next o...

McTominay is the best current Scotland penalty call. He won and converted the decisive spot kick against Greece in March 2025, and there is no stronger recent senior evidence pointing elsewhere. Che Adams remains the cle...

Mikel Oyarzabal remains the strongest Spain primary signal because he converted senior Spain penalties against the Netherlands and Bulgaria in 2025. The backup line changes: Ferran Torres has been mentioned as a Spain op...

Viktor Gyokeres is now the right Sweden World Cup call. The decisive evidence is the March 2026 play-off semi-final against Ukraine, where UEFA recorded him winning and converting the penalty as part of his hat-trick in...

Granit Xhaka remains Switzerland's clearest current first-choice penalty taker because the Swiss FA's official match logs and report show him converting penalties against Sweden in both qualifier meetings in October and...

Hakan Calhanoglu is one of the cleaner calls in the whole tournament file. The Turkiye national-team penalty log shows him converting against Bulgaria in World Cup qualifying in November 2025 and against Germany in the M...

Lionel Messi remains Argentina's obvious first-choice taker when available, and the March 2026 Zambia friendly actually reinforced that rather than weakening it. Argentina won a second-half penalty and Messi, who was alr...

Brazil needs a conditional hierarchy, not a flat one. If Neymar is fit and on the pitch, he is the penalty taker: he is Brazil's record scorer, Il Margine audit lists 93 career penalties scored, and his Brazil trail incl...

James Rodriguez remains Colombia's best current first-call penalty taker, but this is not a clean one-name board. The last two-year senior trail is split early and then leans James: Luis Diaz converted against Costa Rica...

CONMEBOL reported Enner Valencia scored Ecuador's winner from the penalty spot against Argentina in the final qualifying matchday. That is strong recent first-choice evidence. Gonzalo Plata is the clearest secondary beca...

Julio Enciso is the clearest current Paraguay taker. The key point is not just that he scored against Uruguay in June 2025, but that Paraguay kept faith with him after the earlier Venezuela miss. Spanish-language reporti...

Federico Valverde remains the clear Uruguay primary. The March 2026 Wembley penalty is the freshest in-match evidence, and the 2024 Copa America shootout order already placed him first. The backup line now moves from Gio...

Jonathan David is the strongest current Canada call and should be treated as the leading World Cup candidate. He was trusted with an in-match Gold Cup penalty against El Salvador in June 2025 and also opened Canada's sho...

Leandro Bacuna is the clearest Curacao penalty call after converting from the spot against Bermuda in World Cup qualifying. Jordi Paulina also scored a penalty in that match, but he is absent from the final World Cup squ...

Duckens Nazon is Haiti's strongest current penalty taker. The Concacaf match notes show him scoring three penalties across two Nations League matches against Aruba in October 2024, while Frantzdy Pierrot added a later pe...

Raul Jimenez is Mexico's strongest current World Cup penalty candidate. The key direct evidence is his stoppage-time winning penalty against Panama in the 2025 Concacaf Nations League final, and that sits comfortably wit...

Eric Davis now moves to the top of Panama's penalty hierarchy. Panama remains a fluid board because Jose Fajardo, Adalberto Carrasquilla, Eduardo Guerrero and Ismael Diaz all have recent senior penalty evidence, but the...

Christian Pulisic remains the USA primary when he is on the pitch. The secondary has been moved from Malik Tillman to Folarin Balogun. Tillman did take the USA in-match penalty in the 2025 Gold Cup quarter-final when Pul...

Australia's penalty hierarchy is now highly conditional after the final squad. Martin Boyle, previously the clearest recent senior in-match penalty signal, was cut from the 26, while Kusini Yengi is also absent. Ajdin Hr...

Taremi remains the clean Iran primary from recent senior evidence. Sardar Azmoun is outside the World Cup squad path, so he cannot be the backup. The omission is not a normal depth-chart move: AP and The Guardian describ...

Amir Al-Ammari has the strongest direct Iraq evidence right now because The national-team penalty log records him converting Iraq's late World Cup qualifying penalty against the UAE in November 2025. That is the cleanest...

Ayase Ueda should still be treated as one of the strongest World Cup penalty calls in the whole file. The key Japanese-press context is that Hajime Moriyasu moved away from the old volunteer system after the Qatar World...

Ali Olwan is the clear primary because he has repeated late-cycle Jordan penalties, including the Oman World Cup qualifier and Arab Cup knockout evidence. Musa Al-Taamari remains the closest challenger because he is Jord...

Full-strength World Cup squad check keeps Son first. The Trinidad friendly strengthens the ladder: Son took the opening penalty while on the pitch, then Hwang converted the later one after Son was off.

Akram Afif is one of the cleanest calls on the page. He scored a hat-trick of penalties in the Asian Cup final against Jordan and then followed it with another official senior penalty against North Korea in World Cup qua...

Salem Al Dawsari should now be treated as a high-confidence Saudi Arabia primary. The key point is not whether he scored the latest penalties but that he kept taking them in the biggest matches: he took Saudi Arabia's pe...

Eldor Shomurodov should now be treated as a high-confidence Uzbekistan primary. The pattern is very consistent: captain, all-time leading scorer, penalty taker in historic moments, and still trusted after misses. He scor...

Riyad Mahrez is the best current Algeria penalty call. The strongest recent evidence is his AFCON 2025 winner from the spot against Burkina Faso, which restored him as the clearest direct senior signal after the more mix...

Ryan Mendes is the strong primary because he has multiple recent senior Cabo Verde penalty conversions. Bebe is not in Bubista's 26, so the backup line had to move. Jovane Cabral is not a stronger taker than Mendes, but...

Yoane Wissa is the strongest DR Congo call because CAF explicitly recorded him scoring the crucial in-match penalty in the AFCON quarter-final win over Guinea. That is still the clearest clean senior spot-kick evidence i...

Franck Kessie is still the best current Cote d'Ivoire answer. He took and scored the huge AFCON knockout penalty against Senegal and also converted the decisive final kick in the shootout. Later qualifier evidence agains...

Mohamed Salah remains Egypt's clear first-choice taker, but Omar Marmoush is the right secondary now. CAF's World Cup qualifying round-up against Ethiopia explicitly listed both players converting penalties in the same m...

Jordan Ayew is Ghana's clear current penalty taker. The recent senior trail is unusually strong: he scored twice from the spot against Mozambique at AFCON 2024, converted again against Central African Republic in World C...

Brahim Diaz is the clearest current Morocco primary. The deeper AFCON 2025 scan now strengthens rather than weakens that call: he took the March 2025 World Cup qualifying penalty against Tanzania, scored again from the s...

Sadio Mane remains the best current Senegal call, but only at medium confidence. The file is mixed rather than clean: Mane scored the South Sudan qualifier penalty in November 2023, Ismaila Sarr took the penalty against...

South Africa is a mixed board once the full African cycle is included. Teboho Mokoena converted the AFCON qualifying penalty against South Sudan in November 2024, but the most recent senior in-match penalty in the file i...

Tunisia is now strong enough for a medium reviewed call, but the hierarchy is genuinely split. Elias Achouri converted Tunisia's World Cup qualifying penalty against Malawi in March 2025, but Ismael Gharbi then took and...

Chris Wood remains the obvious New Zealand primary because he is the captain, the central scorer and the focal point of the side that qualified. The clearest secondary clue comes from the Fiji qualifier, where Wood had a...