Spain will be looking to add a second star to their crest at the 2026 World Cup this summer.
It’s now 16 years since La Roja beat the Netherlands to win the World Cup, and they travel to North America as European champions.
There are a few uncertainties in Spain’s squad when it comes to the starting XI, such is the quality available. One of the biggest battles will be who starts in goal.
David Raya, Joan Garcia and Unai Simon are the options, and we’ve used our Comparison Matrix to see who comes out on top.
Who is Spain’s best goalkeeper?
Shot-stopping
Obviously, first and foremost, a goalkeeper needs to be able to save shots and prevent goals. Spain have three very good options here. Raya won the Premier League‘s Golden Glove award while Joan Garcia also kept the most clean sheets in La Liga.
Simon was the busiest goalkeeper, though, and he does appear that he is Luis de la Fuente’s first-choice. The Athletic Bilbao goalkeeper faced an average of 9.4 shots on target per 90 minutes in La Liga, more than Garcia’s 8.4 per 90 and Raya’s 8.2. It’s indicative of where their respective teams finished in their leagues. Arsenal and Barcelona were league champions, while Athletic Bilbao finished 12th — their lowest La Liga position since finishing 16th in 2017-18.
Unsurprisingly, Simon also made the most saves of Spain’s attacking options with 2.8 per 90. Of those, 0.9 were from shots outside the box as opposition attacks tested themselves from far. Garcia had the most saves from inside the box at 2.0, of his 2.5 saves in total. Raya, meanwhile, made 1.7 saves per 90, 1.2 of which were from shots inside the box. Garcia also had the best save percentage, stopping an incredibly 77.89% of the efforts on target he faced. Raya had a respectable save percentage of 69.77%, while Simon’s was 64.96%.
But Raya kept the most clean sheets, just edging ahead of Garcia on the per 90 metric at 0.6 to 0.5. Garcia did concede fewer goals, though, averaging 0.7 per 90 to Raya’s 0.8. On these numbers, it should be a battle between Raya and Garcia to be No.1, but Simon has the national team experience and favour with his 57 caps.
Passing
Goalkeepers do have to be good on the ball now. Particularly for a possession team like Spain. They’ll be the first line of the buildup and need to be confident with the ball at their feet. And it’s here that Simon seems to shine the most.
Simon averaged 30.4 passes per 90 in La Liga last season, slightly more than Raya’s 29.5 and Garcia’s 28.6. It was a similar story for touches, with Simon just about edging past his positional rivals — though things were very close. The Athletic Bilbao shot-stopper averaged 40.1 touches per 90. compared to Garcia’s 40.0 and Raya’s 38.9.
But it depends on what kind of passer Spain wants. Simon wasn’t as accurate with his passes as a whole, completing just 57.97 of his attempts with 17.6 per 90. If Spain want someone to keep them in possession, Garcia completed 25.6 of his 28.6 passes per 90, with 89.72% accuracy. Raya’s accuracy is better than Simon’s, but he still only completed 65.01% of his attempted passes.
Garcia is also more accurate with his long passes, even though they weren’t as frequent for Barcelona. He completed 50.88% of his attempted long passes, with 2.9 from 5.7 per 90. Simon attempted and completed the most long passes, with 19.5 and 7.0, respectively. But that only worked out to a 35.92% accuracy. That is still more than Raya’s 34.39% accuracy, and there were times in the season where Arsenal were able to be broken down due to the Spaniard’s lack of desire in going long.
Penalties
Teams do need to plan for penalties at tournaments too. In World Cups past, we’ve seen goalkeepers brought on purely for penalty shootouts. So who is Spain’s most reliable penalty goalkeeper?
Raya’s latest penalty shootout is a recent one and he did save a spot-kick in the Champions League final. But the Spaniard was also criticised for going far too early on a lot of penalties, with Arsenal eventually losing the shootout to Paris Saint-Germain. Now, Raya didn’t get much practice in 2025-26 not facing a single penalty in the Premier League.
| Player | Penalties faced (total) | Penalties saved (total) | Penalties saved % (total) | Penalties faced (shootouts) | Penalties saved (shootouts) | Penalties saved % (shootouts) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unai Simon | 72 | 15 | 20.83% | 27 | 7 | 25.93% |
| David Raya | 78 | 10 | 12.82% | 31 | 4 | 12.90% |
| Joan Garcia | 18 | 2 | 11.11% | 0 | 0 | – |
Across his career, Raya has only saved six of the 47 penalties he has faced (excluding shootouts). In shootouts, Raya has saved four of the 31 penalties faced.
Unai Simon has saved eight of the 45 penalties he’s faced excluding shootouts for club and country. That includes one at Euro 2024 in Spain’s 3-0 win over Croatia. He’s also saved two of the five penalties faced this season. In shootouts alone, Simon has saved seven of the 27 penalties faced in senior football. He has, won three and lost three penalty shootouts in goal for Spain.
Garcia doesn’t have as much penalty experience as the other two. He’s saved two of the 18 penalties faced in matches, conceding all three against him for Barcelona this season. And he’s yet to feature in a senior penalty shootout.
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