Unai Simón is officially the best goalkeeper of 2026. But was he really the best-performing goalkeeper — or did Spain’s World Cup triumph make the decision almost inevitable?
The Athletic Club goalkeeper won the 2026 Men’s Goalkeeper of the Year award at the Ballon d’Or ceremony after an extraordinary summer with Spain. It completed a remarkable double: Simón had already collected the FIFA World Cup Golden Glove after Spain became world champions.
His victory is easy to defend. But once the numbers of Emiliano Martínez, Vozinha and David Raya are placed alongside his, the debate becomes much more interesting.
First, Golden Glove and Yashin Trophy Are Not the Same Award
There is an important distinction.
Simón won the FIFA World Cup Golden Glove in July for his performances during the tournament. He then won the 2026 Men’s Goalkeeper of the Year award — commonly known as the Yashin Trophy — at the Ballon d’Or ceremony in October.
The World Cup award judges one tournament. The Ballon d’Or goalkeeper award considers performances across the entire 2025/26 season.
That distinction becomes crucial when comparing Simón with Martínez, Raya and Cape Verde’s Vozinha.
Why Unai Simón Won
Simón’s World Cup statistics are almost impossible to ignore.
Spain played eight matches on their way to the title and Simón kept seven clean sheets. He conceded only one goal in the entire tournament and finished with a remarkable 90.9% save percentage.
He also established a World Cup record by going 650 consecutive minutes without conceding.
Those numbers made him the obvious Golden Glove winner.
But there is another side to the statistics: Simón only needed to make 10 saves throughout the tournament.
That says as much about Spain’s outstanding defensive structure as it does about their goalkeeper.
Simón stopped almost everything that reached him, but very little reached him in the first place.
The Emiliano Martínez Argument
This is where the debate becomes interesting.
Argentina’s Emiliano Martínez faced significantly more work.
Across eight World Cup matches, Martínez faced 28 shots on target and made 20 saves. Argentina reached the final despite conceding considerably more chances than Spain.
His save percentage of 71.4% was well below Simón’s, and Argentina conceded eight goals, but Martínez was required to intervene twice as often.
That creates a classic goalkeeper debate: should the award go to the goalkeeper with the cleanest statistical record, or the goalkeeper who repeatedly keeps his team alive under greater pressure?
Over the entire Ballon d’Or evaluation period, Martínez also had a strong case. The official award statistics credited him with 58 appearances, 20 clean sheets and a Europa League title before his move from Aston Villa to Chelsea.
He also took Argentina all the way to another World Cup final.
Yet Martínez finished well behind Simón in the Goalkeeper of the Year voting.
Vozinha May Have Been the Most Underrated Goalkeeper
Cape Verde’s Vozinha presents an even more fascinating case.
The 40-year-old played only four World Cup matches, but made 18 saves — almost twice as many as Simón made across eight appearances.
Vozinha faced 23 shots on target, stopped 78.3% of them and kept two clean sheets.
In other words, he averaged approximately 4.5 saves per game. Simón averaged only 1.25.
Of course, making more saves does not automatically make a goalkeeper better. Goalkeepers for weaker teams naturally face more shots.
But that is precisely why Vozinha’s tournament deserves so much credit. Cape Verde did not have Spain’s Rodri, Pau Cubarsí and elite possession structure protecting the penalty area. Vozinha regularly had to make interventions just to keep his team competitive.
His performances were strong enough to earn a place among the ten Goalkeeper of the Year nominees.
Was Vozinha Better Than David Raya at the World Cup?
If we judge purely on individual World Cup contribution, there is barely a debate.
Vozinha was Cape Verde’s starting goalkeeper and produced 18 saves. David Raya was part of Spain’s World Cup-winning squad but Simón remained the first-choice goalkeeper throughout the tournament.
However, the Ballon d’Or goalkeeper award is not a World Cup-only award.
Raya’s club season with Arsenal was exceptional. The Spaniard kept 19 Premier League clean sheets in 37 appearances, winning the Premier League Golden Glove for a third consecutive season.
Across the full award period, Ballon d’Or listed Raya with 29 clean sheets in 53 matches and only 32 goals conceded. Arsenal also won the Premier League.
That explains why Raya received so much recognition even though Vozinha had the much more impressive individual World Cup story.
The Problem With Judging Goalkeepers
Goalkeeper awards are fundamentally difficult because basic statistics depend heavily on the team in front of them.
A goalkeeper behind the world’s strongest defence may record more clean sheets while making one or two saves per match.
A goalkeeper representing an underdog may concede more goals while simultaneously producing five or six difficult saves every game.
Clean sheets therefore measure both goalkeeper performance and defensive quality.
Saves measure activity, but they can also reward goalkeepers simply for playing behind weaker defences.
The best evaluation needs both context and numbers.
TipPulse Verdict: Was the Decision Fair?
Yes — Unai Simón was a completely defensible winner.
Seven clean sheets in eight World Cup matches, one goal conceded, a 90.9% save rate, a historic unbeaten streak and a World Cup title create an extremely powerful case.
But calling the decision obvious would be unfair to the other goalkeepers.
Emiliano Martínez arguably had to do more actual goalkeeping during the World Cup. He faced more than twice as many shots on target and made twice as many saves while helping Argentina reach the final.
Vozinha may have produced the tournament’s most impressive underdog goalkeeping performance. Eighteen saves in just four matches for Cape Verde deserves far more attention than a simple clean-sheet comparison suggests.
And David Raya’s case came primarily from his Arsenal season rather than his World Cup contribution, where Simón was Spain’s undisputed starter.
Our verdict is therefore simple: Simón deserved the award, but the gap between him and the rest was probably smaller than seven clean sheets versus two makes it appear.
If the award were based purely on difficulty of saves and individual workload, Martínez and Vozinha would have had a much stronger argument. If it rewards efficiency, consistency, trophies and the complete season, Simón is a logical winner.