The Athletic goal has been one of the most demanding and historically observed with a magnifying glass. Iribar is the rojiblanco club’s greatest legend and those who wear gloves at San Mamés dream of looking like him. Unai Simón was the only representative of Athletic in the recent Euro 2020 Championship. The rojiblanco goalkeeper, a life insurance for Luis Enrique since the beginning of the 2020-21 season, is already a fixture in the National Team. Since Zubizarreta no one played 20 matches in a row with La Roja, nor Casillas.
Throughout the centennial history of Athletic, the lions have had in their ranks numerous goalkeepers who came to play international matches at some point in their careers: Manuel Vidal Hermosa, Gregorio Blasco Sánchez, JM Echevarria Ayestarán, Raimundo Pérez Lezama, Carmelo Cedrún, José Ángel Iribar, Andoni Zubizarreta, Dani Aranzubia, Kepa Arrizabalaga and Unai Simón. The latter has been the European Under-19 champion in 2015 and the Under-21 in 2019, in addition to becoming one of the heroes of the European Championship in a team that lost in the semifinals against Italy on penalties. He showed his class against Croatia, after a sing, and Switzerland. He achieved Olympic silver in Japan. At 24, on Sunday he equaled the 20 caps of Víctor Valdés and is already among the ten goalkeepers with the most matches in the history of the National Team. He has eight clean sheets, three extra time and two penalty shootouts.
The tradition of goalkeepers trained in Lezama is now not limited to the Absolute. In all the lower categories there is a rojiblanco goal: Agirrezabala (Under-21) and Padilla (Under-19) have been starters in the last match of their combined: the first, against Malta; and the second, in the win against Azerbaijan, a date in which Serrano scored. Then there are Peñalver (U-18) and Pagazartundua (U-15). Others like Arrizabalaga and Remiro are or have been in that orbit. Agirrezabala is already ahead of Ezkieta in Marcelino’s preferences and has even made his debut in the first team. Meanwhile, it is tanned in the subsidiary. Padilla was captured by Athletic at the end of his cadet stage with Zarautz. It has Mexican origins and is closely followed by the Aztec press. Peñalver debuted two months ago in the Basconia goal as a second-year Youth. Iker Pagazartundua (2007), from Cadet A, was summoned by the U-15 to carry out training sessions in Alfaz del Pí (Alicante) from October 24 to 28.