Cristiano Ronaldo is back at Manchester United after 12 years away and returns as one of the greatest goalscorers of all time.
One of the big questions at United is whether Ronaldo or Bruno Fernandes will take the penalties, or how they will split duties.
Last season six of Ronaldo’s 29 Serie A goals came from the penalty spot.
Ronaldo’s career penalty record
Cristiano Ronaldo has scored 139 penalties in his career for club and country. These contributed to his total tally of 785 before his Manchester United career resumed for a second time.
He has missed 28 penalties, most recently in the World Cup qualifier for Portugal against Ireland, a game in which he scored two late goals.
This means Ronaldo has a 80 per cent success rate from the penalty spot.
These records, as with all official scoring records, exclude penalty shootouts. Ronaldo, for instance, scored in shootouts for Portugal against England at Euro 2004 and World Cup 2006.
What is Ronaldo’s Manchester United penalty record?
On the topic of shootouts, the enduring memory of Ronaldo taking a penalty in a Manchester United shirt is his Champions League final miss in 2008.
This had looked to set Chelsea up for the win in Moscow before John Terry’s timely slip, which paved the way for Nicolas Anelka to miss a decisive spot-kick in sudden death.
He also scored in the shootout defeat against Arsenal in 2005, in which Paul Scholes missed the decisive penalty.
When Ronaldo signed for United he was not the regular penalty taker, this duty was Ruud van Nistelrooy’s.
His first penalty came in a League Cup win over West Brom in 2005, a 3-1 victory.
In total during his first spell, Ronaldo scored 17 penalties for Manchester United and missed three, excluding shootouts, a 85 per cent success rate.
He missed penalties in league games against West Ham and Wigan. This was before missing away at Barcelona in the first leg of the 2008 Champions League semi-final, a game which ended in a 0-0 draw, with United winning the second leg 1-0.
Two of Ronaldo’s penalty goals for United came against former teammate Tim Howard, who was at Everton, and his last one was in a 5-2 win over Tottenham in 2009.
One of the most memorable was his penalty in the 2-1 home win over Arsenal in 2008, a game in which Owen Hargreaves scored the winner from a free-kick.
Another came in May that same season, when Ronaldo scored a penalty on the final day of the campaign to open the scoring to ensure United beat Wigan 2-0 away from home to seal the title.
Since returning to United in 2021
After Bruno Fernandes missed a penalty against Aston Villa, Cristiano Ronaldo took over penalty duties for Manchester United once again.
He has currently scored two penalties from three attempts, netting against Arsenal and Norwich, and shooting wide against Middlesbrough.
- Pele sent powerful message to Man Utd star at World Cup 2022, he failed to capitalise on his advice
- Major Elliot Anderson to Man Utd update emerges, Ederson medical latest
- Man Utd weighing up move for 6’3″ striker to aid Sesko, he got double figures last season
- Gary Neville now claims Wayne Rooney’s best role ‘was a mixture’ of five different Man Utd legends’ styles
- What happened to Jovan Kirovski, the US wonderkid who left Man Utd to win the Champions League
- Patrick Dorgu’s value has doubled, Man Utd chief who signed him is becoming integral at Old Trafford
- Two Ineos-backed Man Utd signings under Sir Jim Ratcliffe had complete ‘removal of risk,’ claims Gary Neville
- Ederson sends classy message after landing surprise World Cup 2026 call-up for Brazil
- Ineos to continue Premier League-proven strategy with Lewis Hall alternative who’s World Cup-bound
- Andre Onana wants to de-throne Senne Lammens, but he is just harming another Man Utd star
Receive a digest of our best United content each week direct to your mailbox
