David Raya was the Premier League's best goalkeeper: Why Unai Simon starts for Spain

Spain walked into the 2026 World Cup with three excellent goalkeepers and only one shirt to hand out. Luis de la Fuente made his call long before the tournament kicked off, and Unai Simon kept that shirt through the opening group game against Cape Verde.

David Raya watched from the bench, despite arriving in North America as the standout goalkeeper in the Premier League. Spain travelled to the tournament as one of the favourites, level with France in most betting markets, which only added weight to the goalkeeper question.

Pull the numbers up and the call looks rough for De la Fuente to defend. Raya won the Premier League Golden Glove for a third straight season in 2025-26, with 19 clean sheets and only 26 goals conceded across 37 league matches for Arsenal. He kept that form going in the Champions League too, conceding just 6 goals in 14 games on Arsenal's run to the final.

Simon's season at Athletic Bilbao looked nothing like that. He managed 6 clean sheets and let in 54 goals, numbers well below what fans expect from Spain's first-choice goalkeeper. Then there is Joan Garcia, fresh in from Espanyol, who finished the season as La Liga's best goalkeeper with 15 clean sheets and just 20 goals conceded in 29 league games.

De la Fuente has been blunt about his decision to stick with Unai Simon every time reporters push him on it.

“It would be unfair if we didn’t value Unai’s quality, class, career, and professional experience,” he said before the tournament. Days later he went further, calling Simon “indisputable.” De la Fuente is not picking his goalkeeper off a stats sheet.

He is picking the man who delivered every trophy this Spain side has won since he took the job.

Simon started when Spain beat Italy on penalties to win the 2023 Nations League. He started every match on the run to the Euro 2024 title, gloves on for the final win over England in Berlin.

Spain have built a defensive record under De la Fuente that beats the run Vicente del Bosque’s World Cup winning side once set, going 31 competitive matches unbeaten and stringing together five straight clean sheets heading into this World Cup.

De la Fuente is not about to break that run over six rough months at Bilbao.

Raya himself has played this down rather than push for the shirt.

“Spain is in very good hands no matter who gets to play,” he told reporters days before the opener.

“I think Unai Simon, since his debut, has raised the level of the goalkeeping position. We won the Nations League and the European Championship with him.”

Raya is in no rush. He waited for his own shot at Arsenal before nailing down that shirt, and he looks ready to do the same with Spain.

The stats that complicate the picture

Push past clean sheets and goals conceded and the gap closes even more. The goals prevented metric, which compares a keeper's output to what an average stopper would manage facing the same shots, has Garcia clearly ahead, Raya is next, and Simon last. Passing accuracy follows the same order.

Penalty stats split three ways too. Across his career, Dairio AS reports that Raya has stopped six of 45 penalties faced outside shootouts and four of 31 in shootouts, including one against Paris Saint-Germain in last season's Champions League final that Arsenal still lost on penalties.

Simon has saved eight of 45 penalties faced for club and country outside shootouts, with a stop against Croatia at Euro 2024 still fresh in supporters' minds. Real Madrid's Thibaut Courtois named Raya among the three best goalkeepers in the world right now, alongside Jan Oblak and Alisson.

Spain opened against Cape Verde in Atlanta with Simon still in goal, and somehow only managed a 0-0 draw against a team ranked 67th in the world and making its tournament debut. La Roja dominated the underlying numbers, racking up 27 shots and 2.10 expected goals to Cape Verde's none, yet could not find a way past 40-year-old goalkeeper Vozinha, who made seven saves on his country's tournament debut.

De la Fuente admitted afterwards that his side “lacked freshness and a clinical edge.”

Lamine Yamal came on for the final half hour and still could not unlock the game. Simon barely had work to do for ninety minutes, then made the save that mattered most, getting down to smother Diney Borges' header in stoppage time and stop Spain losing their opener outright.

It was not a flashy night for him, but it kept Spain unbeaten and kept the goalkeeping debate quiet for at least one more game.

Spain face Saudi Arabia next at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, and every report out of camp points to Simon keeping his place again. De la Fuente is not about to use this World Cup as the moment to switch goalkeepers.

Garcia and Raya stay ready on the bench, two of the sharpest stoppers in Europe, both waiting their turn. The real test comes in the knockout rounds, where one mistake from Simon will cost a lot more than it would against Cape Verde or Saudi Arabia.