Harry Kane is much better at penalties than England fans give him credit for - and here's the proof

England have kicked off another Nations League campaign, and Harry Kane has two goals in two games, but he’s still getting criticism from some who claim he can’t deliver in the big matches – especially from the penalty spot.

A 3-2 defeat at the hands of World Cup winners Spain could have been very different had Kane converted his 54th minute penalty. Scoring there would have made it 3-1 to England, but the captain slipped and his spot-kick rattled the crossbar. Six minutes later, Spain equalised. 14 minutes after that, they had the lead and secured the win.

In the grand scheme of things, a loss in the Nations League doesn’t really matter. And yet, fans and rivals alike flooded social media to slam Kane’s penalty-taking ability and his mentality. Frankly, that’s absurd, and a detailed look at his statistics prove the haters wrong rather comprehensively.

England can count on Kane

Across 123 appearances for England to date, Kane has scored 87 goals, with 26 of them being penalties. During that time, we’ve only seen Kane miss from the spot five times. That’s an 83.8% success rate for Kane while representing the Three Lions. Compare that to the best in the business, and the idea of Kane being unreliable becomes truly ridiculous.

Kylian Mbappe has an 82.3% conversion rate for France (14 penalties scored, three missed). Lionel Messi’s international penalty record is surprisingly poor, missing seven of his 32 spot-kicks to produce a 78.1% success rate. Meanwhile, Cristiano Ronaldo’s record is even worse, with a 69.7% conversion rate after missing ten of his 33 international penalties. It’s probably too soon to compare Erling Haaland’s numbers, but the Norwegian has missed two of the eight penalties he has taken for his country (a 75% conversion rate overall).

Obviously, the context of every penalty is different. Some carry more weight than others. But, if we look at this purely on the face of things, Kane stands above the elite players on the international stage when it comes to consistency from the spot.

He scored two penalties at the 2026 World Cup, for a start – one to get the ball rolling in the win over Croatia in the group stage (after a retake was ordered due to the goalkeeper leaving his line), and a crucial one against Mexico in the round of 16. The skipper has six World Cup finals penalty goals to his name in total. Kane also bagged from the spot against the Netherlands in the semi-final of Euro 2024.

Sure, he misses sometimes, but even on those rare occasions, he is still by far the best man for the job.

The impact of Harry Kane's penalty misses

If we dig into the five misses, those waves of criticism that come Kane’s way during pretty much every international break become even more baffling.

The miss against Spain was the result of a slip, potentially due to the pitch. And, as I mentioned previously – while we obviously want to win every game – a narrow Nations League defeat doesn’t impact England in the long run.

Kane’s last miss before that came in the 2022 World Cup. Granted, it was a big one. With France leading 2-1 and just six minutes of regulation time to go, Kane had a huge opportunity to level the scores and give England hope of a semi-final berth. I’m sure I don’t need to remind you that he subsequently skied the penalty in what, admittedly, looked like a moment of panic. However, it’s worth noting he had already scored from the spot earlier in that game.

Prior to those two more high-profile slip-ups, the only other blemishes on Kane’s international record are meaningless misses against Turkey in a 2016 friendly (England won the game 2-1), against Kosovo in a European Championship qualifier (England won the game 5-3), and an extra-time penalty which was saved by Kasper Schmeichel at Euro 2020. Thankfully, Kane reacted quickest and stuck away the rebound, helping England to a 2-1 win and booking a place in the final at Wembley.

I’d argue that technically makes it four penalties missed, but either way, Kane’s record is indisputably strong.

Has anyone seen Harry Kane?

There is a fairly good chance that Harry Kane will surpass Messi and even Ronaldo in terms of international goals by the time he hangs up his boots. Whether that will be the only legacy he can claim or not remains to be seen, with England still looking like they will always fall short at the final hurdle.

With a massive 14 goals at World Cup finals, there can be no denying that Kane is a player capable of performing on the biggest stage. But, when the pressure is really on, does he deliver?

There is perhaps an argument that Kane’s impact wanes as a tournament goes on. Indeed, when his goalscoring stops, England tend to bow out of the competition. He failed to score against Croatia in the 2018 semi-final, managing just two shots (off target) in the 120 minute-match. We’ve already covered his penalty miss against France in 2022. In the recent semi-final clash with Argentina, Kane produced one shot and had just 26 touches of the ball.

It was a similar story in the Euro 2024 final, where Kane came away with just one shot and a lowly 13 touches before being replaced by Ollie Watkins on the hour-mark. Against Italy in 2021, on home soil, the statistics (as per SofaScore) are even more damning. Kane didn’t manage a single shot – but, he did slot away his penalty in the shootout.

So, does Kane go missing when the lights are brightest? Sometimes, yes. But, I’d argue the goals, creativity, leadership, and relentless running he offers his country to guide us to those big games more than make up for the few quiet nights. One thing’s for sure, England would be lost without Kane, and we should be thanking our lucky stars we have him, not dragging him down.