Unai Simón to attend Ballon d'Or ceremony

Athletic Club goalkeeper Unai Simón is travelling to London on Monday to attend the 70th Ballon d’Or ceremony, organised by the prestigious French sports magazine France Football and UEFA, where he hopes to be named the world’s best goalkeeper and receive the Yashin Trophy – for which he finished second in the voting two seasons ago.

As well as his family, the Basque goalkeeper will be accompanied at the event – which is being held at the London Palladium Theatre – by an Athletic Club delegation including president Jon Uriarte and our director of football, Mikel Gonzalez. Our club’s greatest icon, Jose Angel Iribar, will be unable to attend the event as he had hoped.

Simón is in the running for the award following an unforgettable year, in which he made his Champions League debut with Athletic Club, won the World Cup with the Spanish national team and was awarded the Golden Glove as the tournament’s best goalkeeper, whilst also breaking the record for the longest run without conceding a goal.

Unai's rivals for the Yashin Trophy are David Raya (Arsenal), Joan García (FC Barcelona), Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid), Dibu Martínez (Chelsea), Gregor Kobel (Borussia Dortmund), Yassine Bounou (Al-Hilal), Édouard Mendy (Al-Ahli), Matvey Safonov (PSG) and Vozinha (Colo-Colo).