Best penalty takers in the Premier League: How Raul Jimenez record compares with greats of EPL era

From 12 yards, the Premier League has seen ice-cool composure and costly nerves, but no one has finished with a cleaner slate than Wolves and Fulham striker Raul Jimenez. The Mexico international’s 12 successful spot-kicks from 12 attempts is the most flawless return in the competition’s history, nudging him above the previous benchmark set by Yaya Toure, who converted all 11 of his league penalties.

Jimenez reached the summit on 1 February 2026, firing past Manchester United to move to a perfect dozen. Those dozen goals have come against 11 different keepers; only Ipswich Town’s Christian Walton has been beaten twice by the striker, both goals arriving in the same fixture.

Volume is the separator at the summit. Dimitar Berbatov also never missed from the spot in Premier League play, scoring nine, yet falls short of the double-digit attempts required to enter the elite bracket. Cole Palmer saw his chance to match Toure evaporate in March 2025 when Leeds United’s goalkeeper denied him an 11th consecutive success.

At the other end of the scale, volume tells a different story. Alan Shearer remains the competition’s most prolific penalty scorer with 56 conversions, but the Newcastle and Blackburn legend also holds the unwanted record for most misses, having failed with 11 efforts. Wayne Rooney shares that miss total from 33 attempts, giving the Manchester United great a 67% conversion rate that places him among the least efficient regular takers.

Others who struggled from the spot include Juan Pablo Angel and Steed Malbranque, each successful only five times from ten attempts, while Dwight Yorke and Raheem Sterling hover around the 60% mark. Michael Owen’s 14 goals from 21 attempts yields the same 67% figure as Rooney, illustrating how even celebrated finishers can labour under the pressure of a solitary run-up.

Globally, Cuauhtemoc Blanco’s 95% success rate across 73 penalties and Ronald Koeman’s 94% from 103 efforts set the bar, but in an English context Rickie Lambert’s 48 successes from 51 attempts stands out—though only seven of those came in the Premier League. Southampton connections dominate English folklore: Matt Le Tissier famously converted 25 of 26 in the competition and 43 of 44 in all senior games, his lone failure coming against Mark Crossley in March 1993.

For now, however, the Premier League’s benchmark for perfection belongs to Jimenez, the striker whose dozen flawless strikes have rewritten the record books and placed him alone atop the list of the competition’s most reliable marksmen from 12 yards.