Unai Simon: from a village water tanker to the Yashin Trophy

Unai Simon’s rise to being named the world’s best goalkeeper has taken him from helping his grandparents collect drinking water in a small village to becoming the first Spanish goalkeeper to win the Yashin Trophy.

Receiving the award from Peter Schmeichel at the Ballon d’Or ceremony, Simon used his speech to thank the people and places that shaped him rather than focus on his own achievements.

He paid tribute to his parents, his brother and his partner, describing her as an “oasis of calm”. He also thanked his childhood friends from Murgia, whose close-knit bond reflects the Basque tradition of “la cuadrilla” – a group of lifelong friends whose relationship extends beyond ordinary friendship.

Simon and his friends remain in a WhatsApp group, and he takes them on summer holidays as he tries to retain a normal life away from football. According to BBC Sport, those friends often remind him that the privileges enjoyed by people attending such ceremonies are not available to everyone.

The Athletic Bilbao goalkeeper also acknowledged his coaches and team-mates, as well as Koldo Asua, his former academy coach who died in 2021. Asua spent 13 years working with young players at Athletic Bilbao and stressed the importance of family ties and education alongside football.

Simon has previously said Asua changed his understanding of the game, teaching him that a person’s value is measured not only by achievements on the pitch but also by the legacy they leave and how they are remembered as a good person and team-mate.

Iribar’s influence

Simon also mentioned Jose Angel Iribar, the 83-year-old Athletic Bilbao and Spain goalkeeping great who remains an ambassador for the club. Iribar holds Athletic Bilbao’s appearance record, having played 614 matches.

Iribar wore black in tribute to Lev Yashin, the Soviet goalkeeper known as the “Black Spider”. Simon has continued that tradition, seeing the colour as a link to Athletic Bilbao’s history and to those who protected its goal before him.

Born in Vitoria in 1997, Simon grew up in Murgia and joined Athletic Bilbao’s academy in 2011, aged 14. His route into the first team accelerated in 2018 after Kepa Arrizabalaga joined Chelsea.

Simon was then playing for the club’s reserve sides, having featured for Basconia and Bilbao Athletic, and was on loan at Elche. But an injury to second-choice goalkeeper Iago Herrerin and Alejandro Remiro’s refusal to renew his contract led Athletic Bilbao to recall him only 20 days into the loan.

What appeared to be a temporary solution became a permanent breakthrough. Simon established himself as the first-choice goalkeeper and, a year later, won the European Under-21 Championship with Spain under Luis de la Fuente.

His distribution and confidence with the ball became important to Spain’s style. Luis Enrique gave him time and trust, although Simon continued to face criticism and competition from David Raya of Arsenal and Joan Garcia.

De la Fuente said Simon had been treated harshly for a long period but continued to select him. During Spain’s World Cup triumph, Simon conceded only once, kept seven clean sheets, won the Golden Glove and went 650 minutes without conceding – surpassing Walter Zenga’s previous record of 517 minutes at the 1990 tournament.

He joked: “If my gloves could speak, they would say they had not worked as hard as the gloves of the other goalkeepers.”

Simon won the Zamora Trophy in 2023-24, becoming the first Athletic Bilbao goalkeeper to do so since Iribar in 1970. In the Ballon d’Or voting, he received 351 points, 128 more than runner-up David Raya, with Thibaut Courtois third. Two years earlier he had finished second behind Emiliano Martinez with 213 points.

Away from football, Simon describes himself as shy with strangers, although friends and neighbours say he is very different around people close to him. He deleted his social-media accounts after negative comments affected his mood and praise produced an exaggerated sense of euphoria.

In 2024, he extended his Athletic Bilbao contract until 2029 without a release clause. “I owe everything I have in my life to Athletic,” he said.

The decision reflected his commitment to the Basque club’s policy of relying on Basque players, despite the greater difficulty of competing for European honours and individual awards than clubs with larger financial resources.

Simon has not forgotten Murgia. During a recent visit, he arrived in the car he has owned for eight years, gathered local children for a game of football and appeared to return, briefly, to the boy who once tore his trousers diving on dirt and asphalt pitches, much to his mother’s frustration.