Unai Simon Named World's Best Goalkeeper After Record World Cup

Unai Simon has been named the world's best goalkeeper. Peter Schmeichel handed him the Yashin Trophy, the award for the top keeper in the world, and Simon accepted it as the Spain number one.

Simon is first choice for Spain and for Athletic Club, the Bilbao side that plays only players from the Basque region and its neighbours. He was also central to Spain's World Cup win. He conceded a single goal in the whole tournament and kept seven clean sheets, which means seven matches without letting in a goal. That earned him the Golden Glove, the prize for the tournament's best keeper.

BBC Sport reports that Simon went about 650 minutes without conceding at the World Cup. That beat the record of 517 minutes set in 1990 by Walter Zenga, the Italian goalkeeper. For a goalkeeper, minutes without conceding is one of the simplest ways to measure a run of form, and Simon's run went on for a long time.

His rise has been steady rather than sudden. He was born in Vitoria in 1997. In the 2023-24 season he won the Zamora Trophy, a Spanish league award for goalkeepers. He became the first Athletic keeper to win it since Jose Angel Iribar in 1970. Iribar still holds the club's all-time appearance record, with 614 matches.

Simon has also spoken about the people who shaped him. His youth academy mentor, Koldo Asua, spent 13 years in Bilbao working with young Athletic players. Asua died in 2021.

Simon's place is not guaranteed. Arsenal's David Raya and Joan García are both waiting for their chance to take the Spain number one shirt. Goalkeepers rarely keep a first-team jersey for long without a challenger, and both men are ready to push for it.

The next test comes soon. Spain are preparing to host England in the Nations League on Sunday. The Nations League is a competition between national teams in Europe, and it gives countries regular matches outside the World Cup and the European Championship. Simon will be watched closely, as he always is, and the question for Spain's coaches will be whether his form carries on from the tournament.

What stands out most is the sheer length of his run. A goalkeeper can have one brilliant match. Going almost 650 minutes without conceding at the World Cup, and then being handed the world's top award, is a different kind of achievement.