Athletic Club’s goalkeeper on hosting Arsenal in the Champions League and the magic of San Mamés
“Sometimes you need some luck; that was mine,” Unai Simón says. “What I thought might happen in five, six, seven years happened in 19 days.”
It was August 2018, Simón was 21 and although he had been training at Athletic Club for a decade, and with the first team for three years, the son of police officers from Vitoria didn’t think there was a chance of playing in Bilbao any time soon, if at all. It was all he wanted but he didn’t even live there any more, moving 800km in search of an opportunity with second division Elche. Which is when weird things started to happen.
Chelsea signed Kepa Arrizabalaga. Iago Herrerín got injured. And negotiations over a contract renewal with Álex Remiro stalled, Athletic deciding that they couldn’t play him. So they called Elche and asked for their goalkeeper back. He hadn’t even played a game.
Actually that’s not entirely true; not if you include friendlies. “I only played once at the [Estadio] Martínez Valero and we won a trophy: the [pre-season] Lady of Elche Cup,” Simón says, laughing. “And I went from that, from fourth choice and out on loan, to playing at San Mamés on 20 August.”
