He puts the heart into a fist of an entire country with his footwork. And he knows it. Unai Simon fulfills orders, of Luis Enrique Martinez, that fit with your footballer profile. To be a goalkeeper, he has two maxims that masters of the trade have taught him, “a cool head and being made of ice.”
Unai Simón won both European who played in the lower categories of the Spanish team. At 24 years old, he lives as a starter, although he does not feel like it, his first great tournament with the absolute. Admirer of Gianluigi Buffon blushes when spoken of inheriting the position of Iker Casillas in a great tournament with Spain.
Its cold appearance disappears in short distances. Enjoy talking about football in an interview with Efe, wrapping Alvaro Morata of some whistles that “make him feel sorry” and he does not hesitate to admit that the dressing room was “sunk” due to the lack of a goal. Write down references and solutions. They know how to fix it.
What feelings did your debut in a Eurocup leave you?
Well, we have always dreamed of playing these games, a tournament like that, if they told me a few years ago that I was going to play a European Championship, I wouldn't believe it. Good feelings and looking forward to the Polish game.
The ever-present fortune factor in football changed his career at once …
It was a strange situation, it can be said that it was luck because Berizzo told me to look for a way out of Athletic, I decided on Elche, I'm leaving, not even 15 days have passed when they call me to explain that Kepa had signed for Chelsea, that Iago was injured and was unaware of Remiro's situation at the time. It was a surprise to see me start but I enjoyed it to the fullest. It may be luck but I have always been told to look for it. Luckily, things worked out in my favor.
In tournaments it is key to have that luck on the side. In the first game he appeared with the post …
Yes, in football, games are often decided by a millimeter or a tenth of a second. In these high level competitions you can go inside or outside. We were fortunate in the rebound of Marcos going to the post and then I catch it, and in the back pass that Berg does not put because he misses the ball. Football is about generating and the one who generates the most has the best chance of winning.
Have you always wanted to be a goalkeeper?
In Murgia, when I was four years old, I started as a player but I was very big or very lazy and I was in goal. In football 7 we were lucky to have a field with natural grass, which in winter was actually pure mud. I loved throwing myself on the ground, coating myself, my mother not so much (laughs), but since then I decided to wear gloves for life.
You are already different since you choose a different position from the rest of your colleagues
They always classify us as crazy, the weirdos in football, but it is one of the most special positions. Football is beautiful because there is a player from the eleven who can catch the ball in the area. We have that essence that no other outfield player has.
It does not transmit crazy image, it looks like ice
They have always told me and it is because of the situations experienced or because of what coaches have transmitted to me that I have had that they have been players like Armando, Imanol Etxeberría or Aitor Iru. They tell me to always keep a cool head. You do not have to come up in a good game, or sink in the bad moments. You always have to act the same way. Focused on the field and off there is time to enjoy and go crazy. This is how I understand the goalkeeper position: always keep a cool head, be ice.
Why was Buffon your reference?
I looked at Buffon because he was a loyal player to Juventus, as I would like to do at Athletic. He is a player who always had his head in place, he was not a goalkeeper who was seen to exaggerate movements or attitudes. Always a good companion on the field.
When you started in the lower categories of the national team, what did you like about Iker Casillas?
I liked Iker's mental capacity to handle situations. During his career there were moments that a hobby like Madrid questioned him. Knowing how to handle those situations with his head makes him great, logically because of his stops but because of the ability in bad times to be the only one who decided his future. A special memory is the stoppage of the World Cup final against the Netherlands, which takes that foot that may seem like a normal situation but in a final it gives you the World Cup.
And now he is the Iker of that time as a starter in the goal of Spain in a European Championship, do you think about the significance?
I don't compare myself to Casillas, far from it. I have eight games played in the national team. It is true that the competition is the same, we live day to day, we cannot think of getting the best hand in a final when we are still in the group stage and we have to beat Poland.
But he has played the last eight games of Luis Enrique, he should feel like a starter
Not because Luis Enrique tells us that there is no one to start in this selection. Now we are 23 and hopefully we can get Busi back as soon as possible to be able to play every game. Nobody is a starter and nobody is a substitute in this team, there will be players who have more minutes and others less, but all are important in the selection.
Is being in the Eurocopa to remove a thorn for the lost finals?
No, because that thorn is going to be nailed for a long time, but being here evades you from those thoughts, from the environment at Athletic. The months of April and May were very long and I have taken it with great enthusiasm, with great enthusiasm to enjoy these games, forgetting those two finals that we could not win.
I heard a phrase that can define you: “The pressure can never me”
The pressure is good to have it in its proper measure. Whoever gets more than he owes, in the end goes against him and whoever thinks that this is a pachanga, is wrong. You have to know how to recognize the situation you live in, a European Championship that makes us all very excited to win it, but it is a football match and the only important thing is to stop them and leave a clean sheet. The rest is secondary.
It is as if the debate of the goal does not hit him
This debate has been generated many times by people outside the environment that we live here. Both David (De Gea), Robert (Sánchez) and I know that any goalkeeper can play and whoever does it is because the coach has decided that it is the best for the team. The Eurocup will only be won if the best of us are at the disposal of the team. The other day I had to play because I'm sure Luis Enrique considered him the best for the team, but against Poland or Slovakia, or if we reach the final, another goalkeeper can play. Here not only eleven play nor win a goalkeeper, all three win, we are aware of that and we are able to compete at the highest level all three.
The leader of the national team, is he on the bench?
Luis Enrique logically has to give us some guidelines to be able to assimilate the games and leave motivated, in fact his role works very well, but we on the field look for solutions and there are players like Koke, Thiago or Busquets who have more experience and help us a lot. . When things didn't work out against Sweden, you could see Koke cheering, then Thiago, they have had many experiences and they know we have to continue. In the dressing room we were down for not scoring a goal but this does not end here, there are two games left and playing like against Sweden we can do great things.
Such a great generational change, does it make you long for references?
There has been a generational change and those who have more weight in the team are players who have lived a lot of experiences that we have not had with the national team and hopefully we can later. The referents are Koke, Thiago, Busi or Jordi Alba, who have to show us the way and where to go. What they convey to us is that the team is the one that wins these competitions and not the selections, you can have the best players who are not going anywhere if you do not move in a group. We have to be a team and we are succeeding.
Did you hear Morata whistles from your position?
It makes me a little sad to live that situation. I don't force people not to whistle on the field, but when we want to be a team, we support each other. We want to win this European Championship because of the illusion that it makes us after such a tragic year that we have lived and to make all the fans happy. It has to be a symbiosis. We promise to give them everything on the pitch and if they have to go whistling in the end, I'm nobody to say no, but we need the support of the fans.
In the past there were situations that took their toll on Morata psychologically. Now he looks more mature to face them
In fact, it is only necessary to see that Álvaro has a clear situation in the first half that he does not put in, but he makes two plays that creates a scoring chance and another that takes a face play. He is a player who has lived through these experiences in the past and it makes him forget what happened and is still involved in the game. It's normal for me to be sad in the dressing room, but yesterday I was already in the mood to do great things against Poland. You can see that and it is a player who tells us that things are going to happen with him upstairs.
Since the moment of change, he has been supported by all
I am sure that it would happen with any player who is having a bad moment in this selection in the Eurocup, we are going to dress him up as if we were his family. This is what we are going to do with Álvaro, I am sure that if he plays against Poland he will do very well.
The goal will come, but it is just as important to maintain defensive security
We try to score as many goals as possible and concede the least. I cannot guarantee to leave a clean sheet in every game but we are going to do everything in our power to achieve it, I as goalkeeper and Álvaro as striker because in the pressure we all defend and attack all. It is about having more success in front of goal that I am sure we will have against Poland.
That way of being impassive shows her with her footwork, do you know that puts the heart in a fist to an entire country?
I know and I understand it, there is talk that I am on ice because the cut against Portugal goes well but if it goes wrong and goes inside, surely we are talking about another situation. I have things clear, what Luis Enrique asks of me and, in his game, the goalkeeper is a player to seek superiority. Many times we have to have that peace of mind and know where the free man is to get the ball out there. We know the risks we take, but those who pressure us also know the risks they take by putting pressure on us. As we do well, in the vast majority of cases, we generate many occasions.
The bad experience against Kosovo did not affect his philosophy
In the end, football is more successful than wrong, but there are mistakes and when a goalkeeper makes one, he looks bigger. I wish I could say that from here to the end of my career I will not make any mistakes, but I am sure that I will have to make one. I consider myself very young, Kosovo and actions that I have had in LaLiga are experiences so that they do not happen again in the future.
Do you dream of going to the Games with Spain?
No matter what nationality you have, the Olympic Games is a unique opportunity and if I have the opportunity to go, Luis de la Fuente decides to summon me, I will accept it with a smile from ear to ear and I will try to make the most of it.