Los Angeles, July 3 (IANS) Spain’s goalkeeper Unai Simon has etched his name into football history by setting a new Guinness World Record for the longest clean sheet in FIFA World Cup finals matches.
After Spain’s 3-0 win over Australia to set up a last-16 tie against Portugal, Spanish shot-stopper has gone an incredible 519 minutes without conceding a goal on the sport’s biggest stage, surpassing a milestone that had stood untouched for over three decades.
Simon’s feat eclipses the previous record of 518 minutes, which was set by Italy’s legendary goalkeeper Walter Zenga, whose streak ended in the 67th minute of the 1990 World Cup semifinal against Argentina.
The clean sheet against Austria was Simon’s fifth in successive World Cup matches dating back to the 2022 tournament in Qatar.
Guinness World Records officially confirmed the achievement on Friday. “New record: Longest football (soccer) FIFA World Cup clean sheet The longest time played in World Cup finals matches by a goalkeeper without conceding a goal is 519 minutes by Spain’s Unai Simon,” it shared on X.
Simón’s record spans two World Cups. At the 2026 edition, he kept clean sheets against Cape Verde, Saudi Arabia, Uruguay, and Austria, the first three in the group stage and Austria in the Round of 32, for a total of 360 minutes, that followed 159 consecutive minutes 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
Although Spain was eliminated by Morocco in a penalty shootout in the Round of 16 in Qatar 2022, Simon did not concede during the 120 minutes of play.
The last time Simon was beaten in a World Cup match Spain’s group-stage loss to Japan without allowing another goal after Ao Tanaka scored the eventual winner in the 51st minute on December 1, 2022.
Before setting the all-time World Cup record, Simon had already eclipsed the previous Spanish benchmark held by Iker Casillas, whose streak of 476 consecutive minutes stretched across the 2010 and 2014 World Cups.
–IANS
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