Unai Simon Sets Guinness World Record with Historic World Cup Feat

Spain goalkeeper Unai Simon has set a new Guinness World Record for the longest clean-sheet streak in FIFA World Cup finals matches.

Simon was in goal as Spain secured a comfortable 3-0 win over Australia to set up a Round of 16 tie against Portugal. The shot-stopper was barely troubled and was composed when called upon to make saves.

After keeping a clean sheet, Simon has now gone an incredible 519 minutes without conceding a goal on the sport’s biggest stage, surpassing a milestone that had stood untouched for more than 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.

Unai Simon during the FIFA World Cup 2026. (Photo by Catherine Ivill – AMA/Getty Images)

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.

Simon’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 at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

Although Spain was eliminated by Morocco in a penalty shootout in the Round of 16 in Qatar, Simon did not concede during the 120 minutes of play.

The last time Simon conceded a goal in a World Cup match was during Spain’s group-stage loss to Japan on December 1, 2022

Ao Tanaka scored the eventual winner in that match. Since then, he has not allowed another goal.