Joao Santos, the agent of Arsenal and Italy midfielder Jorginho, has said that he hopes his client takes the next penalty for the Azzurri, despite missing four consecutive international spot kicks.
The 31-year-old came under criticism for missing from the spot again during Italy’s 5-2 victory over North Macedonia in Euro 2024 qualifying on Friday night.
Though he successfully converted all of the first six penalties he took while on international duty, Jorginho has now missed four in a row, including in the Euro 2020 final against England at Wembley.
In a recent interview with TMW, Santos, Jorginho’s agent, joked that he hoped Jorginho missed a penalty in every game if it meant the team would go on to win 5-2.
“Jokes aside, only those who take penalties miss penalties,” Santos told TMW.
When asked about Italy’s designated penalty taker in his most recent press conference, CT Luciano Spalletti implied that Jorginho would likely not take the next one.
In response, Santos said: “I hope he steps up and takes it, he is a professional. Penalties are always a lottery, and there’s always a goalkeeper to beat.”
He then continued by suggesting that the improved standard of goalkeeping in recent years has made penalty taking a much trickier task.
“Goalkeepers have improved a lot in recent years,” he said. “And they study all the moves of the penalty takers. Today, it is more difficult to score than it is to make mistakes.
“In 10 years’ time, only one in ten penalties will go in. (There will be) new technology, studies, techniques. It’s not easy to score a penalty.”
This is literally the definition of insanity
Yeah lets let him shoot another 5 shots, he might score 1. Why are we still talking about this?
Agents are parasites