Greatest penalty ever? Kevin Pressman for Sheffield Wednesday vs Wolves | OneFootball

Who is responsible for the greatest penalty ever scored in football history?

There are many contenders for that particular accolade. One that immediately springs to mind is Zinedine Zidane’s remarkable Panenka in the 2006 World Cup final.

Having the audacity to produce a chip in football’s biggest match, against arguably the world’s best goalkeeper at the time in Gianluigi Buffon, took absolute balls of steel.

Zidane’s shot only just crossed the line, but the most important thing is it *did* cross the line.

Unfortunately, Zidane’s moment of magic from 12 yards was completely overshadowed by his headbutt on Marco Materazzi, resulting in football’s most infamous red card.

Other great penalties that we’ve previously looked at here at GIVEMESPORT include Joe Hart’s spot-kick for Man City vs AS Roma in 2015, Aritz Aduriz’s audacious penalty for Athletic Bilbao in 2018, and Virgil van Dijk’s ice-cold strike against Chelsea in last season’s Carabao Cup final.

And who can forget Harry Maguire’s wonderful penalty for England against Italy in the Euro 2020 final?

Did Kevin Pressman score the best penalty in football history?

However, there is another sensational penalty that we need to talk about. Many of you will already be familiar with it, but some of you won’t be.

That said, every football fan deserves to know about it.

We are, of course, talking about Kevin Pressman’s ultimate no-nonsense penalty from 1995.

The ex-Premier League goalkeeper, best remembered for his 17-year spell with Sheffield Wednesday, almost put a hole through the net with his perfect spot-kick against Wolves in a FA Cup fourth-round replay at Molineux.

Before watching Pressman’s penalty, turn the sound on because you won’t want to miss the spine-tingling noise of the ball hitting the stanchion.

Martin Tyler and Andy Gray on commentary duty for Sky Sports both gasped in amazement.

Tyler then uttered the words: “Get. In!”

While Gray added: “You won’t see a better penalty than that in a penalty shoot-out. You could have had two goalkeepers in there and they would have had trouble saving that.”

You’re not wrong there, Andy.

It’s a cult hero of a penalty, worshipped by all those that remember it.

And here are just a handful of comments on the YouTube video, uploaded in 2011.

“Arguably the best taken penalty ever, because no goalkeeper could have ever save that. It’s so powerful and in the top corner.”

“He’s essentially just taken a goal kick.”

“Don’t even know how the net managed to save it.”

“Actually the best penalty ever.”

“Best penalty ever and I mean ever. No one saving that.”

“Shot power 99.”

“Has the goal stopped rattling yet?”

And so on…

Kevin Pressman: thank you!

What more can we say to the man responsible for the greatest penalty in football history?