Should Argentina take Messi off penalty duty? The numbers say it might be time

Lionel Messi keeps adding chapters to his World Cup legend, but the one persistent crack in his armor is becoming harder to ignore. At the 2026 World Cup, the 39-year-old Argentina captain once again dragged his team through a knockout thriller. Against Egypt in the Round of 16, Argentina trailed 2-0 with just over ten minutes left before pulling off one of the tournament's most stunning comebacks. Messi scored, assisted, and inspired — but he also missed a penalty that could have cost his side everything. That spot-kick failure against Egypt was his second miss from 12 yards in this tournament alone. He had already failed to convert against Austria in the group stage. No player in World Cup history has ever missed two penalties in normal time at a single edition. Across his entire World Cup career excluding shootouts, Messi has converted only four of his eight attempts. His overall record from the spot is also below the elite standard. Opta figures show that in the Big Five European leagues, Champions League and World Cup combined, Harry Kane converts 90.7% of his penalties, Cristiano Ronaldo 85.2%, Erling Haaland 84.1% and Kylian Mbappé 81.0%. Messi’s figure stands at 78.8% — slightly worse than the historical average conversion rate of around 79%. Yet from open play, Messi remains almost superhuman. In World Cups alone, his 17 non-penalty goals have come from chances valued at 13.1 expected goals, meaning he outperforms expectation by nearly four goals. The contrast is stark. After the Egypt game, Messi admitted the miss left him in tears. "I cried because I felt I let my teammates down," he said. Argentina eventually won 3-2 thanks to goals from Cristian Romero, Messi himself, and Enzo Fernández in stoppage time. But the question lingers: with so much at stake, should the penalty duties be handed to someone else?