With the departure of Karim Benzema, Real Madrid have not only lost one of the best strikers in the world, but they have also lost their main penalty taker. Relevo have looked at who could replace him.
After Sergio Ramos left the club in 2021, Benzema stepped up and started to take penalties. In the last two seasons, he scored a total of 20, missing five (80% success rate). Without him, someone else must take responsibility, and both the coaching staff and the players are split about who should be the new penalty-taker.
The first option is Luka Modric. He is a veteran and has displayed ice-cold veins in the face of the most tense situations. He has plenty of experience as a taker of maximum-pressure penalties. Although at Real Madrid he has always had someone ahead of him on the list of takers, for Croatia he has taken them regularly. He has scored 22 spot-kicks in total for his nation and has only missed four (85% success rate). With the white shirt of Real, he has a balance of three scored and one missed.
The second option to take penalties is Rodrygo. At only 22 years old, he has already been allowed to take three penalties for Los Blancos and has scored them all, two of them in the Champions League. He also took them when playing for the Brazil underage teams, so it is not a new task for him.
Japtej Ghura | GSFN
