Ivan Toney jokes he’s human with rare mistake as striker set to deny Cristiano Ronaldo history

Ivan Toney scored a hat-trick but missed a rare penalty as he helped Al Ahli to a 4-1 win over Al Najma.

Prior to his penalty miss, Toney boasted a 100 per cent record from 12 yards having scored all 24 previous attempts from the spot.

However, Victor Braga was on hand to deny the former Brentford man shortly before the break.

Fortunately, the England international made amends for his first half spot kick miss by bagging a second half treble, which also included a late penalty.

“It shows I’m human. Yeah, it happens. Everyone can miss a penalty,” Toney said after Thursday’s victory.

Al Ahli went behind to a Lazaro goal midway through the first half before rallying to extend their unbeaten run to 12 matches, winning 11.

Toney time

“Everyone can miss penalties, but it’s how you bounce back,” Toney continued.

“I bounced back today and got the hat-trick. I wouldn’t sleep easily because of the missed penalty; I wouldn’t sleep for a while as I would be thinking about it.

“But if someone told me to miss one penalty for a hat-trick, I’d take it.”

Toney’s midweek trio saw him go five goals clear in the race to land the Golden Boot, with Julian Quinones and Cristiano Ronaldo both locked on 18 league goals.

Ronaldo, who is zeroing in on 1000 career goals, did miss two league games amid a dispute with the Public Investment Fund but made a goalscoring return to domestic duties against Al Fateh last time out.

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The iconic Portugal captain has won the Golden Boot the last two seasons having scored 35 and 25 goals in the 2023/24 and 2024/25 seasons, respectively.

And he is looking to win a third successive Golden Boot, and achieve the feat for the first time since Omar Al Somah in 2017.

Additionally, Ronaldo is hoping to make history and become the first European player to win the Golden Boot three years running in the Saudi Pro League.

The 41-year-old is seeking to add to his 18 league goals when Al Nassr take on Al Hazem on Saturday afternoon.

Toney, meanwhile, will be hoping his goal haul will see him force his way back into the England squad.

World Cup dream

Toney hasn’t featured for England since coming off the bench late on in the Three Lions’ 3-1 loss to Senegal last summer.

England face Uruguay and Japan at Wembley in the first international break of the year next month as Thomas Tuchel looks to finalise his World Cup squad.

Harry Kane leads the charge for the national team but there remain question marks over his backup.

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Ollie Watkins has struggled for consistency this season having scored just eight league goals, and just once in his last five.

In addition, Dominic Solanke has been sidelined for much of the season, meaning there is a spot on the plane up for grabs.

Toney has admitted it would be a ‘dream’ to get the call from Tuchel to represent England stateside in the summer.

“It would be a dream to play there,” Toney told Sky Sports.

“Everybody dreams of that, and imagine if we were to win the World Cup? That would be for the country.

“You have these little visions of what could happen, these kind of things. If it was to come true, it would be a big blessing.

“My job is to keep scoring goals and hopefully that gives me the best chance of being there.”

Al Ahli sit level on points with Al Hilal, and one clear of Al Nassr, at the top of the Saudi Pro league following Thursday’s win, though Matthias Jaissle’s side have played a game more than their title rivals.