Back to the Soccer Newsfeed

Who’s laughing now? Penalty fool Simone Zaza is in better form than Ronaldo

The striker was ridiculed over his spot-kick at Euro 2016 and a dire spell at West Ham but he is back in Italy squad due to his fine form at Valencia

Euro 2016 made Simone Zaza famous. Just for all the wrong reasons. The Italy striker's penalty attempt in the shootout loss to Germany made him laughing stock - not because he missed, but because of the way he missed.

Zaza took a bizarre series of short, staccato steps before blazing the ball over the bar. Within a matter of minutes of the conclusion of the quarter-final, he was being ridiculed worldwide, the subject of a million memes.