How Neymar became the best penalty taker at Paris Saint-Germain and why the Ligue 1 club needs to choose now
Published 18/08/2022 at 14:57 GMT
Following penalty drama in Paris Julien Pereira took a lot at how Neymar has evolved to be the first choice when it comes to spot-kicks with tensions rising between he and star forward Kylian Mbappe. This article was originally published for Eurosport France and has since been translated and adapted for Eurosport UK by Pete Sharland ahead of PSG’s clash with Lille on Sunday evening in Ligue 1.
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It is time to decide. The tension in the media and on the pitch, notably around the second penalty during the 5-2 win over Montpellier, should force Christophe Galtier to make a decision between Kylian Mbappe and Neymar when it comes to who takes spot-kicks. To make his choice the PSG boss will have on one side, the desire not to erode the leadership of the boy from Bondy. But on the other, the possibly of having one of, if not the best, in the world at this particular discipline.
Because whereas Mbappe has not yet found the right method of how to take a penalty for him, Neymar has worked out his own perfect formula. He’s tried and tested it over the years, and tweaked it to the smallest detail throughout his long career at the highest level.
To understand the evolution of the Brazilian in this area, you have to go back to a time where Neymar wasn’t quite Neymar yet.
Back in February 2010, the 7th to be precise, “Ney” as he was known then, is only 18 yearw old. But the world is already talking about him as a prodigious talent at Santos with breathtaking dribbling and eccentric hairstyles.
On that particular evening he faced a player who, in Brazil at least, was a far bigger star than him. It was Rogerio Ceni, then 37-year-old goalkeeper who already had over 1,000 professional matches under his belt, faces in him an electric Sao Paulo – Santos match. In the 70th minute Santos get a penalty whilst down 3-2. The kid who everyone in the Santos part of the stadium sees as the successor to Pele seizes the ball and carefully puts it down on the spot.
In his run-up, he takes a lot of small steps, then stops dead, feigns a strike which forces Ceni to dive right. All the taker then has to do is push the ball to the other side and make it 3-3. The next day the local press was agitated. Popularised by the aforementioned Pele, the “paradinha” penalty is quite common in South America but certainly still a little controversial. Firstly because it doesn’t quite respect the spirit of the game, secondly because it can be likened to a kind of humiliation. And we don’t humiliate Rogerio Ceni.
After the paradinha comes the chess game
All the fuss reached the ears of one Jerome Valcke. The Frenchman was at the time the Secretary General of FIFA and decided to pass a new law with the IFAB, the body that governs the rules of football. “Don’t FIFA have anything better to do?” retorted Neymar to the news that the new rule now states that “feinting during the run is permitted, but faking the strike after the run-up has ended is now prohibited and is a violation of Law 14.”
If it sounds as if Neymar did not really appreciate the decision by FIFA it is because he was a big fan of the paradinha, even more he signed his first professional contract with Santos. “When he could do that no-one wanted to face penalties from him,” Marcelo Martelotte, one of Neymar’s former coaches at Santos told the the player’s official YouTube channel later on. “He put them all in, but when he had to change his technique he missed a few.”
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Neymar Jr #10 of Paris Saint-Germain is about to shoot a penalty during the Ligue 1 match between Paris Saint-Germain and Montpellier HSC at Parc des Princes on August 13, 2022 in Paris, France
Image credit: Getty Images
The Brazilian star therefore had no choice but to adapt his process. The run-up remained the same but the stop disappeared, and with it so did the efficiency of his penalties. For several seasons, including after his arrival in Europe, Neymar’s reputation as a specialist took a hit. During the 2015-16 season the forward alternated between good and bad from the spot, missing five penalties between February 11 2015 and February 3 2016. Although it’s not as if Lionel Messi or Luis Suarez were covering themselves in glory in the same way.
“It’s anecdotal,” said Luis Enrique, then coach of Barcelona, at the time. “They are all confident, especially Leo but Luis and Ney too. It’s not a problem. The only we can do is ask the opposing goalkeeper to tell us which way he’s going to dive!” In reality were are other solutions, a few days later against Villarreal he succeeded with a paneka. That goal marked a before and after in the way he took penalties.
Technically extremely effective… but risky
After that panenka, and while IFAB decided to toughen up the rules by sanctioning with a yellow card and a free-kick for the opposing team if a player feigns his kick after the run-up, Neymar decided to adopt a new method.
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Rather than taking his time and feinting before touching the ball, Neymar now chose to slow down and delay his actual shot as long as possible whilst still keeping his leg in motion. The reasoning? It forces the keeper to dive and allows him to choose the opposite side at the last minute of his follow-through. Technically the process is much more difficult to achieve than it seems, since the decision must be made in a fraction of a second and the shot taken without having your eyes on the ball. But it is devilishly effective.
Since fully integrating this know-how, Neymar has converted 46 out of the 52 penalties he has taken. This brings his conversion rate to 88% whereas before it had barely got up to 73%. Better still, 36 of these 46 goals were scored by sending the goalkeeper to the wrong side. Thus, for four season Alban Lafont has been the only goalkeeper to have stopped a Neymar penalty by choosing the right side. Most of the other goalkeepers end up not really diving, trapped by the Parisian’s strategy.
From now on they are therefore the ones who question the taker. “I came to see him and I said to him, ‘do you know that if I stop you, I’m a star?’” Jessy Moulin told him after PSG v Troyes last May.
“He laughed and I said to him ‘please at least tell me which side you are going to shoot at,’” Neymar gave no hint and the Troyes goalkeeper has been added to the long list of victims of the former apprentice of the “stop” and now the master of “the slowdown”.
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PARIS, FRANCE - AUGUST 13: Neymar Jr and Kylian Mbappe of Paris Saint-Germain speak before a penalty kick during the Ligue 1 match between Paris Saint-Germain and Montpellier HSC at Parc des Princes on August 13, 2022 in Paris, France. (Photo by Aurelien
Image credit: Getty Images
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