The story behind Unai Simón's viral acceptance speech

Athletic Bilbao goalkeeper Unai Simón won the Yashin Award as world's best keeper and delivered an emotional acceptance speech at London Palladium.

Unai Simón was awarded the Yashin Award on Monday as the world's best goalkeeper, and his emotional acceptance speech at London Palladium drew particular recognition. The Athletic Bilbao keeper revealed the speech had been carefully crafted since learning of his nomination, when he felt he had better chances than the previous year when Dibu Martínez won the award.

Simón explained his preparation process in an Athletic podcast: "I was alone in the car on the way to Lezama or home thinking about what to say, how to convey it, how to synthesize so many people who have been by my side in such a short time. Because synthesizing everything in two or three minutes was very difficult. Above all, what scared me most was being overwhelmed by the situation, being there in front and getting stuck or forgetting."

Among those he mentioned was Koldo Asua, vital in Simón's development and that of many other Lezama academy players. Simón credited Asua with changing his mindset: "I arrived here wanting to win, not to concede any goals, and I only focused on that. I was very selfish when I came here and he, with his words, expressing what Athletic was, made me change that mentality."