Neymar's wild penalty technique that FIFA banned remembered | OneFootball

Neymar is one of the world's best penalty takers and he has been for some time.

The Brazilian is often ice-cold from 12 yards and rarely lets the pressure get to him.

Per Transfermarkt, he has taken 89 penalties at the time of writing.

He has scored 74 of those at a success rate of 83%.

Neymar's penalty technique is calmness personified.

He slowly runs up to the ball, watching the goalkeeper the whole way, before waiting for the goalkeeper to move and picking his spot at the last moment.

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His penalty technique used to be quite different, though...

Neymar's wild penalty technique at the start of his career

Neymar burst onto the scene with Santos in 2009 at the age of just 17.

He quickly emerged into a key player for the club and took the majority of their spot-kicks.

A teenage Neymar managed to make a lot of goalkeepers look silly with a penalty technique that looks even crazier to watch now.

Neymar adopted a technique where he would stop right before he kicked the ball.

More often than not the goalkeeper would dive and Neymar would coolly roll the ball into the opposite corner.

A video shows Neymar pulling off the technique five times for the club where he started his career. View it below...

FIFA banned the penalty technique

FIFA kept a close eye on Neymar's penalties.

They felt Neymar's technique was unfair on goalkeepers and, in 2010, made the decision to ban it.

Any players that adopted the technique from the 2010/11 season onwards would be cautioned.

FIFA 'Amendments to the Laws of the Game' document from May 2010 read: "Feinting to kick the ball once the player has completed his run-up is considered an infringement of Law 14 and an act of unsporting behaviour for which the player must be cautioned."

Fan reaction

Goalkeepers around the world were surely relieved when FIFA made the decision to ban the technique.