Spanish NT stalwart claims Barcelona summer signing was ‘the best’ in his position last season | OneFootball

Spanish national team star Unai Simón has this week spoken out on Barcelona counterpart Joan García being omitted from Luis de la Fuente’s latest squad.

Shot-stopper Joan has for his part seen his name dominate the media chatter surrounding La Roja over the last week.

This comes after the 24-year-old was a surprise omission from the Spanish squad for an upcoming World Cup qualifying double-header.

Joan is fresh off a spectacular campaign in the colours of Espanyol in 2024/25, enough to earn him a move to La Liga champions Barcelona over the summer.

And the Spaniard has since gone on to slot straight in as the new no.1 in Hansi Flick’s squad.

For these reasons, it came as a surprise when Joan was not afforded his first senior international call-up this month.

Speaking during an interview with Radio MARCA, as cited by Mundo Deportivo, this week, the subject of Joan’s omission was therefore put to Spain no.1 Unai Simón.

And the Athletic Club standout made use of the opportunity to both defend boss De la Fuente’s call, and heap praise on his fellow goalkeeper:

“It is normal to talk about and value what a great goalkeeper Joan is. He was the one who contributed the most to his team, in this case Espanyol, and with Barcelona he has also started very well. He is having a very good campaign, just as we saw in Vallecas against Rayo.

“Courtois still seems to me to be the best goalkeeper in the world, but Joan was the best goalkeeper in La Liga last season. That doesn’t mean that the rest of us feel like we’re worthless. We have a weight here.

“We have to value what the three goalkeepers who are here achieved. I value myself… I’m the goalkeeper of Athletic, two years ago we won the Zamora, last year we conceded very few goals and we won the European Championship.”

Conor Laird – GSFN