Unai Simon hails Barcelona star yet highlights his own recent success | OneFootball

After his memorable stint at Espanyol, the goalkeeper Joan Garcia has started life at FC Barcelona in flying colors and has already helped his new team at this early stage of the new season.

However, despite these good performances, he remained uncalled by Luis de la Fuente for the Spanish national team for this international break, when Spain will be facing Bulgaria and Turkey.

It seems like Luis de la Fuente is committed to retaining his trio of Unai Simon, David Raya, and Alex Remiro in the squad, but there has been increasing clamor for Garcia’s inclusion in the team. Recently, the former Real Madrid and Valencia goalkeeper Santiago Canizares highlighted this aspect.

Photo by Alex Caparros/Getty Images

Now, the regular starter for Spain, Unai Simon, himself has gone to recognize Garcia as the best goalkeeper in La Liga last season. As Mundo Deportivo has reported, the Athletic Club goalie was not shy to appreciate someone who can threaten his status as the starter for Spain in goal:

“It’s normal that people talk about and appreciate what a great goalkeeper Joan is, he contributed the most to his team, in this case Espanyol, and with Barça he has also started really well, he’s having a fantastic campaign, as we saw in Vallecas against Rayo.”

Meanwhile, Simon also made it clear that other players, especially those called up by Luis de la Fuente, have their own importance:

“Courtois still seems to me the best goalkeeper in the world, but Joan was the best goalkeeper in La Liga last season. That doesn’t mean the rest of us don’t have value; we have our weight here.”

“We have to put value on what the three of us here have achieved. I value myself… I’m Athletic’s goalkeeper. Two years ago, we won the Zamora Trophy, last year we conceded very few goals, and we won the Euros.”

There is no doubt that the current Spanish team is doing very well, and there is no need to make any unnecessary changes. But Joan Garcia also deserves credit and recognition for his good performances, and hopefully, Luis de la Fuente will give him the chance to showcase his talents with the national side soon.