As the world’s top-ranked team and reigning European champion in 2024, Spain enters the 2026 World Cup as one of the heavy favorites. Coach Luis de la Fuente has built an impressive new generation that confidently claimed the European title in 2024. Group H, featuring Uruguay, Saudi Arabia, and Cape Verde, is manageable—but the focus is clearly on the World Cup title.

Coach Luis de la Fuente has named three goalkeepers for La Roja: Unai Simón, David Raya, and Joan García. Spain enters the tournament as the defending European champion and is among the top favorites to win the title. In Group H, they will face Cape Verde, Uruguay, and Saudi Arabia. On paper, this trio of goalkeepers is the most talented in the entire tournament—and the question of who should start in goal is the most hotly debated topic among Spanish soccer fans.

Simón is de la Fuente’s first choice, despite a difficult club season that has sparked intense debate in Spain. Athletic Bilbao has conceded 54 goals in 34 La Liga matches this season, and Simón has kept only seven clean sheets. Both figures are the weakest among the trio.

That doesn’t change his status with the national team coach: Simón was a starter at the 2022 World Cup and the 2024 European Championship, where he played in nearly every match of the tournament. He is a complete modern goalkeeper—athletic, strong in the game, with excellent build-up play and the ability to shape big tournament moments. In 2023/24, he won the Zamora Trophy as La Liga’s best goalkeeper. His contract with Athletic runs through 2029, with no buyout clause—a symbolic gesture of loyalty to the club he loves. De la Fuente trusts him. Whether that trust is justified remains to be seen in the tournament.

Raya is statistically the most impressive goalkeeper in the entire tournament. This Premier League season, he started 37 league games and kept 19 clean sheets—tying David Seaman’s Arsenal club record. Add to that nine Champions League clean sheets in 13 games as Arsenal advanced to the final against PSG. Two consecutive Premier League Golden Gloves speak for themselves. His path has been unusual: the Barça academy, then Blackburn Rovers in England, Brentford, and Arsenal since 2023. He didn’t make his international debut until 2022—but with around 25 caps to his name, he has now fully established himself in the national team.

Raya is the best goalkeeper in the world this season—and yet he’s still number two behind Simón. In Spain, this decision has the sports media on the edge of their seats.

García is 25 years old and has had one of the most remarkable goalkeeping careers in Europe this season. After years at Espanyol—where he was La Liga’s busiest goalkeeper in 2024–25 with 146 saves and saved the club’s season—he moved to FC Barcelona in the summer of 2025 after the club activated his buyout clause. There, he immediately took over the starting spot: In 30 La Liga appearances, he conceded only 21 goals and recorded 15 shutouts—the fewest goals allowed per game of any goalkeeper in the Spanish top flight. With a FotMob season rating of 7.73, he is one of the highest-rated goalkeepers in Europe this season. He won the league title and the Supercopa with Barcelona—and didn’t make his senior international debut until March 2026.