Goalkeeper Unai Simón smashed the 36-year-old record held by legend Walter Zenga.

The Spanish goalkeeper's solid performance against Austria in the Round of 16 of the 2026 World Cup allowed him to surpass numerous long-standing milestones, becoming the goalkeeper with the longest clean sheet streak in tournament history.

According to statistics, Unai Simón has extended his consecutive clean sheet streak to 519 minutes at the World Cup. The previous record belonged to Italian legend Walter Zenga with 517 minutes, set at the 1990 World Cup and standing for 36 years. Zenga kept clean sheets from the opening match against Austria, then against the USA, Czechoslovakia, Uruguay, and the Republic of Ireland, before Claudio Caniggia scored against him in the semifinal against Argentina.

The fact that Unai Simón has shattered this milestone is even more remarkable given that he achieved it in modern football, which features a faster pace and more scoring opportunities. The Athletic Bilbao goalkeeper's streak began after Ao Tanaka's goal in Spain's group-stage match against Japan at the 2022 World Cup.

Since that moment, Simón kept a clean sheet for the remaining 39 minutes of the match against Japan, played the full 120 minutes without conceding against Morocco in the 2022 World Cup Round of 16, and then continued to keep clean sheets in all three group-stage matches of the 2026 World Cup against Cape Verde, Saudi Arabia, and Uruguay. In the knockout match against Austria, he officially surpassed Zenga's record and extended his impressive streak.

Not only did he set a world record, but Unai Simón also became the goalkeeper with the best clean sheet record in the history of the Spanish national team at the World Cup. Previously, the national record belonged to Iker Casillas with 477 consecutive minutes without conceding, set between the 2010 and 2014 World Cups.