2023-06-14 06:04:11
Unai Simón turned 26 last Sunday. A moment of maturity for any footballer, although now the Athletic goalkeeper has to discuss ownership of the national team with Kepa, with whom he met in his early years in Bilbao. The Biscayan club allowed itself to sell its starting goalkeeper, thinking that it had Remiro behind it, without noticing that Unai came further back to keep the red and white goal and the national team’s goal.
Kepa was De la Fuente’s goalkeeper in his first two games. With him he reached the final of an Under 21 Euro Cup in 2017 and two years later he did it with Unaialthough after the defeat against Italy in the first phase he left him on the bench to give the goal to Antonio Sivera, the current Alavés goalkeeper. Something that the Athletic Club goalkeeper remembers without rancor. «[De la Fuente] He did not put the cross on me. These are decisions that coaches have to make. They can only play eleven and only one goalkeeper. You have to look at what is best at the time and at that time the best thing was to put Antonio. I don’t know what would have happened if I had played. Months later I played the Olympics with him. I’ve known him since the first Atlantic Cup [un torneo juvenil] that I played with him at the age of 18 and we have a good relationship, “he explains.
Unai has played 30 matches with the national team, all of them as a starter and almost consecutively. In between, he has only missed a friendly match like the one played in Barcelona in March last year against Albania in which David Raya played or the one in Jordan prior to the World Cup in which Robert Sánchez played, who has now been left off the list for let Unai come back.
The goalkeeper had the confidence of Luis Enrique, who gave him the title in the Eurocup and in the World Cup and now he has to win that of Luis de la Fuente. Something has changed with the new coach and Simón explains it naturally. «In the beginning we are going to look for that advanced line of forwards when they pressure you, look for direct play a little more, but the goal hasn’t changed much. You have to continue to dominate the area, have a relationship with the defense, dominate the passing game and become great in goal to save. There are nuances that change to which we have to adapt. We have the keys and with them we are going to go to the death against Italy », he warns.
Unai is not worried about the rumors about the continuity or not of De la Fuente and defends his ability to lead La Roja. «I have had him since I was 17 or 18 years old and he has had spectacular professional growth. In the sub 21 and in the Olympics he was seen qualified to lead this team. What I have seen of him, what he transmits and the tools he gives us, are the ones necessary to face the competition », he says.
#Kepa #Unai #Simón #meet