Rooney names surprise defender as 'one of best penalty takers I've ever seen'

Wayne Rooney has named a former defender as one of the best penalty takers he has seen.

Rooney was himself known to be prolific from the spot kick having scored 48 from 61 during his 19-year career.

The new Plymouth Argyle boss looked back on his tournaments with Engand on the latest episode of the Overlap and questioned the decision to let Jamie Carragher take a penalty in the 2006 World Cup quarter-final against Portugal.

However, Rooney was full of praise for John Terry's ability from the penalty spot despite his famous miss in the 2008 Champions League final against Manchester United.

'How can Jamie Carragher be taking a penalty in a shootout? That is shocking!,' the United legend said.

'The only thing I would say is John Terry was one of the best penalty takers I’ve ever seen, honestly, in training.

'I went off the pitch in the Champions League final, I’m looking at him because I’ve seen him in training with England. I’m watching him walking up and I’m thinking, ‘It’s over’ – thankfully he slipped!'

After an evenly poised match between Chelsea and United in 2008, Terry stepped up to the spot in the penalty shootout but slipped in his run up, sending the ball veering off to the right, and United ended up winning 6-5.

It may have ended different if everything had gone according to Terry's training plan prior the match.

Speaking to beIN Sports in 2020, Terry looked back on the famous miss, saying: 'On the build up to finals you take penalties, and you go through the routines, and you do the walk from the halfway line.

'We'd been doing that for two weeks at the training ground, and I'd been dinking them down the middle like the panenka!'

Meanwhile, Rooney admitted it winds him up when players 'mess around' while practicing penalty kicks in training.

He said: “I’ve practiced penalties where I’d tell the goalkeeper what way I’m going and do it properly, but it does frustrate you when players come up and try and mess around.

'I say to my players now, "If you’re practicing, do it properly how you’d do it in a game’ and you can do as much practice, but you can’t put in places the stadium, the fans, the pressure of it – obviously it’s completely different when you’re stepping up to what it is on a training pitch."'