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“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.”
“I had to try to build my career somewhere else and hope that somehow, something would open up at Athletic in six or seven years and they might still have me in mind,” Simón adds. “Suddenly you’re given that opportunity and you’re shitting yourself. I didn’t sleep well.
“San Mamés was packed, there were fiestas in Bilbao. You’re playing Leganes, who might not be the biggest opponents but for me it was like the Champions League final. In the opening minutes, there’s a ball I don’t come for and Yuri [Berchiche] gives me such a shout, screaming. And I think: ‘Shit, here we go.’ From that moment, everything changes.”
How it changed. The first night wasn’t easy and there would be a wait when Herrerín returned, but as Simón sits at the Lezama training ground he has been attending since he was 10, seven years since winning the Lady of Elche, he is Athletic’s and Spain’s No 1, and is heading into the club’s first Champions League fixture since 2014; the team whose talent pool is less than 7% of Spain’s population against the world’s elite. And that, Simón says, is as good as it gets.
“The Champions League is special for everyone, but for us especially, people from ‘home’. It makes us proud to show you compete this way, too. In Bilbao football starts with people who work in the forges putting together a team from the area. Football has expanded and become internationalised, it moves a lot of money, so that has been abandoned a bit, but our model links to that tradition, how football was. We’ve known each other all our lives which means that [while] we’re probably not the best team in terms of quality, in those bad moments we’re special. That’s who we are.
“Day to day, it’s nicer. Yesterday [Saturday] we lost to Alavés and all we wanted was to get back here, to see each other, lift each other, for the jokes to start again. To think: ‘In two days we have the Champions League.’ Playing a Champions League [campaign] fulfils you, that’s what you aspire to. But people see football in different ways.
“Some prioritise money. Some, titles. Some are moved by playing alongside and for those who have given you everything. Of course I’d love to be the best goalkeeper in the world, of course I’d like to win the Champions League, do things that are hard to do at Athletic. But qualifying for it with Athletic, winning a cup with Athletic, fulfils me more than 10 titles anywhere else.”
Besides, Simón is a European champion. When Spain won the final of Euro 2024 in Berlin, the two clubs with the most players on the pitch were Athletic and their neighbours Real Sociedad. “I try to tell the kids in the academy that,” he says. “It will be hard but you can be at Athletic and be world class, like Nico [Williams] or [Dani] Vivi[an]. Or at other similar clubs, like Mikel Oyarzabal at la Real, like [Martín] Zubimendi. I’m very proud of that. I have a lot of affection for people who see football that way.
“We’ve been playing really well for three years, everything smells of roses, it’s all lovely. But in [my] first few years we had to eat shit: we were close to relegation, we weren’t in Europe, we had bad moments. But even then – even then – there’s something. If you go to Liverpool or Bayern [Munich], you can win titles and of course you’ll love it, but … pfff … I’m not sure I could handle bad moments as well there as I do here. In that, Athletic is the best club. Then better times can come: winning the Copa del Rey, playing in Europe, hopefully enjoying wonderful Champions League nights this year.”
Starting with Arsenal on Tuesday, and yes Athletic’s players have been watching them – if not purely for professional reasons. In the Carlton Hotel in the hours before facing Alavés, some followed the trip to Nottingham Forest.
“We have a fantasy league,” Simon says. “I have [Martin] Ødegaard in my team; when they had to take him off after 15 minutes it was a downer. Hopefully, he can be fit again on Wednesday.
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“Ødegaard was my star player, now I’m not sure what to do: let’s see what the injury is. Last year I had [Erling] Haaland; I spent all my money on him and it didn’t go very well. This year I’ve got [Dominic] Solanke up front but he’s not playing at Tottenham, I’m going to have to sell him. I’ve not got much dynamite.”
Unlike Zubimendi, then? Simón grins. “Those aren’t normal goals [against Forest] for him,” he says. “He hits it so well and he’s having a magnificent season. I haven’t spoken to him yet but I have a game of chess pending; let’s see if he accepts before the game.
“Martín knows this is a big season and is showing he wants to be the starting No 6 for Arsenal. And Mikel Merino has such a competitive character that wherever you put him he will play well. We’ll have to be careful. Arsenal are one of the teams we most like watching. We faced them in pre-season too and Martín gave a recital: we saw that day the level we have to reach.
“You watch the draw wanting the easiest teams possible, although there aren’t any. Well, you do if you are a player anyway. You ask my mum and what she wants is nice cities. The only one I wanted really [as an experience] was [Borussia] Dortmund away and we got it. We got Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal, which is very hard, but that’s how it is. My mum would have liked London or Paris, but if we’re going to get them I’m glad it’s at San Mamés.
“My mum loves to travel with Athletic, enjoy the atmosphere, but she doesn’t like football at all, all the less so if I play. Last year when Julen [Agirrezabala, Athletic’s backup goalkeeper] played the Europa League games, she was in the ground for every match; this year, when it looks like it might be me, she’ll probably stay outside. And then when the game’s over she’ll say to my dad: ‘Did he play well?’ I wouldn’t say my family’s an exception because I see it in all mums and dads. They don’t always have a good time because of the transcendence of it all.
“I’ve been playing a long time, I know I have to live with mistakes. If my mum and people in my circle could understand that, maybe they could watch games more calmly. However much I say: ‘I’m fine, this is football,’ they don’t get it. It’s normal: they’re people who love me, worry about me. For an hour and a half they have a bad time, then they see things. I don’t read anything; the problem is my mum does. My dad doesn’t, he knows himself whether I have played well or not: I say [to my mum]: ‘Listen to your husband.’”
“I don’t enjoy games,” Simón concedes before cracking up. “My teammates will tell you that. I’m not someone who’s happy on the pitch. I try to be flat emotionally there; whether we score or I make a mistake I try to remain the same. What I enjoy is the day to day, being here at Athletic, the satisfaction of doing well, the adrenaline of having played in front of so many people. Nights such as Roma last year, Rangers. The Copa del Rey win. And hopefully the Champions League this year.
“I’m looking forward to listening to the anthem at San Mamés, hearing the fans pushing us, shouting for 90 minutes. These are the nights. I play football for these moments. If I wasn’t at Athletic, I don’t think I would enjoy football as much.”
