For the third time in six days everyone got to their feet to hand a standing ovation to Unai Sim\u00f3n, dressed in all black, before the world. Named the best men\u2019s goalkeeper on the planet, holding the Lev Yashin trophy, they had applauded him at the London Palladium on Monday night and before the game began at San Mam\u00e9s, Bilbao, on Sunday. Now somewhere in the middle of it all, the ferocity of the 197th Basque derby, there was another moment, even more meaningful and more lasting, a cheer again giving way to something deeper: an appreciation for a man as well as his work closing a week that will be forever his. Which means it will be forever theirs too.<\/p>\n
Real Sociedad and Athletic Club had been doing battle for 72 minutes and it was 2-1 when Simon took off to make a save that denied Carlos Soler an equaliser and defied belief<\/a>. As the ball flew off his palm, San Mam\u00e9s exploded. And then it happened: never mind that Athletic still had a derby to win and a corner to defend, forget the fact that the lead was a single goal, the visitors relentless now and 25 minutes still to resist; at the stadium everyone calls the Cathedral<\/a>, a place of ritual and liturgy like no other, the entire congregation, 50,092 people, started clapping. Started and did not stop. For a minute, maybe more, it was like the match that matters most didn\u2019t matter at all, momentarily fading until it was just him and them together.<\/p>\n That was just one of four superb stops that Sim\u00f3n made as Athletic ended La Real\u2019s four-derby winning run, those saves and goals from I\u00f1aki Williams first and \u00c1lex Berenguer giving them a 2-1 win. There had been a six-minute period in the first half alone, immediately after Luka Sucic had made it 1-1, in which he saved from Ander Barrenetxea on 33, Sucic on 34, and Mikel Oyarzabal on 38, then gave everyone a coronary when he dropped a shoulder and dribbled past Oyarzabal on 40. But this, the last of them on 72, was the best; it was also the culmination of an extraordinary night and a six unique days, the kind myths are made of. \u201cWe already knew. If anyone [else] had any questions about the trophy, those can be put aside now,\u201d said Athletic\u2019s coach, Edin Terzic. But it was not really the fact that Simon had taken the trophy; it was how he had, when he had.<\/p>\n Sim\u00f3n clears the ball under pressure from Orri Oskarsson. Photograph: Juan Manuel Serrano Arce\/Getty Images<\/p>\n On Monday, Simon had boarded a Vueling flight from Bilbao for the Ballon d\u2019Or ceremony<\/a>. A World Cup winner, a tournament record breaker too<\/a> \u2013 albeit one who that day in New Jersey said<\/a>: \u201cIf my gloves could talk they would say they didn\u2019t have to do much\u201d \u2013 he knew there was a chance of winning the goalkeeper\u2019s award. For a few weeks, he had wondered what he might say, ordering his thoughts as he drove into Lezama each morning as he had been doing virtually every day for 15 years. By the time he took to the Palladium stage, he knew. Delivered with a light in his eye and without notes, with a steady voice, the speech was 491 words long and lasted two minutes and 21 seconds<\/a>.<\/p>\n It was also perfect. Spain was taken by it, this abnormal normality: an expression of a man, a perfectly out of place, somehow different to its sport, its society even. It is not unusual to thank people, no, but there was nothing hysterical, nothing Hollywood about this, no posturing, no self indulgence, the only celebration that of a culture. Instead, there was an understated authenticity, gratitude to his cuadrilla, the lifelong mates who are still there, making light of it all<\/a>; the partner who is an \u201coasis of calm\u201d, which he knows he needs in this game; the parents who guided him; the goalkeepers who shared the World Cup with him and the friends \u2013 \u00d3scar De Marcos, I\u00f1igo Lekue and Gorka Guruzeta \u2013 who are about the least footballer footballers you could wish to meet.<\/p>\n Unai Sim\u00f3n\u2019s speech at the Palladium showed \u2018understated authenticity\u2019. Photograph: Matthew Childs\/Action Images\/Reuters<\/p>\n To Jos\u00e9 \u00c1ngel Iribar, the legendary Athletic goalkeeper whose statue stands outside San Mam\u00e9s and whose presence is felt everywhere inside, in whose honour they wear black. To Koldo Asua, the coach who told the boy arriving in Bilbao to leave his ego behind, that what truly matters is the human legacy you leave not the trophies you take: to be remembered as good people. To all those who, he said, had taught him to love a club, to the fans above all.<\/p>\n This is Sim\u00f3n\u2019s ninth season in the first team at Athletic, who he joined at 14. He might not have had any. In the summer of 2018, aged 21 and fourth choice, he went on loan to Elche. But then Chelsea signed Kepa Arrizabalaga. Iago Herrer\u00edn got injured. And negotiations over a contract renewal with \u00c1lex Remiro stalled<\/a>, Athletic refusing to play him and eventually losing him to la Real<\/a>. So they called Elche and asked for their goalkeeper back. \u201cSometimes you need some luck; that was mine,\u201d Sim\u00f3n says. He hadn\u2019t played a competitive game for Elche; within three days he had played his first for Athletic. He has played almost 300 since, nowhere he would rather be<\/a>. \u201cIn the first few years we had to eat shit, we had bad moments. But even then \u2013 even then \u2013 there\u2019s something,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Quick GuideLa Liga resultsShow<\/p>\n Villarreal 0-1 Espanyol, Levante 0-2 Atl\u00e9tico Madrid, Rayo 3-0 Celta, Betis 2-1 M\u00e1laga, Barcelona 6-1 Alav\u00e9s, Getafe 3-1 Sevilla, Racing Santander 0-3 Real Madrid, Elche 0-1 Valencia, Athletic 2-1 Real Sociedad<\/p>\n Monday: Deportivo v Osasuna (8pm GMT)<\/p>\n Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n As for the good moments, those are unmatched. The five days after Athletic won the Copa del Rey in 2024 were the best of our lives, he said<\/a>. Yes, even more than those that followed winning the World Cup. And although he was undisputed first choice, he hadn\u2019t even won the Copa del Rey: instead, he was on the bench guiding Julen Agirrezabala, the substitute handed cup games, through the shootout<\/a> that won their only major trophy in 40 years<\/a>. When he won the Zamora award as La Liga\u2019s best goalkeeper that season<\/a>, the first in 50 years since Iribar<\/a>, the head coach Ernesto Valverde impressed upon him that this mattered \u2013 for the club. One of the best things about winning Euro 2024 with Spain, he said, was that it shows academy kids that you can be at clubs like Athletic, that you didn\u2019t need to leave \u2013 something he extended to his friend Oyarzabal at Real Sociedad, a man very like he is<\/a>, silent even in success. Especially<\/a> in success.<\/a> Now he had been named the world\u2019s best goalkeeper, an ovation greeting the final Eskerrik asko denoi: \u201cthank you, everyone\u201d. No one foresaw him being the moment of the night, but here he was. Questioned for so long, embraced now.<\/p>\n And here he was back at San Mam\u00e9s six days later. Here they all were, the timing as impeccable as the performance, the calendar kind. The derby. The derby<\/a>, unlike any other<\/a>: all about identity, belonging, tradition. Real Sociedad, led out by Oyarzabal. And on the 50th anniversary of the most emblematic derby moment of them all. In 1976, captains Inaxio Kortabarria and Iribar had walked out at Atotxa together carrying the Ikurri\u00f1a, the still illegal Basque flag. On Sunday, now 76 and 83 respectively, they led the way out again, handed a guard of honour and carrying an Ikurri\u00f1a<\/a>. The original, sewn by the sister of Real\u2019s Jos\u00e9 Angel de la Hoz Uranga and smuggled into the ground, waited in a frame on the halfway line. San Mam\u00e9s, blue and white shirts in among the red as ever, applauded them on.<\/p>\n Sim\u00f3n shows off the Lev Yashin trophy at San Mam\u00e9s. Photograph: Javier Zorrilla\/EPA<\/p>\n