Unai Simón's Commitment to Athletic Bilbao: A True Testament of Loyalty
In an era when release clauses read like lottery jackpots and loyalty often lasts only as long as the next offer, Unai Simón has chosen a different path. He has nailed his colours to the Athletic Bilbao mast, and he has done it in the most direct way possible: with a contract that offers him no escape route and a message that leaves no room for doubt.
On 24 May 2024, the Spain international signed a new deal with Athletic that included no release clause at all. Not a symbolic one. None. For a goalkeeper of his stature, that is a statement. Simón insists the real proof of love for a club never sits in the small print.
“I don't think the question of whether or not there's a release clause necessarily reflects the truth of your feelings towards Athletic Bilbao,” he told Marca. “In the end, when you want to prove that you love something or someone, you do so through your daily actions. You have to prove it every day.”
That is the core of his message: love is not a number. Not €150 million, not any figure an agent or a board might dream up. It is what you do from Monday to Sunday, in training, in the dressing room, in front of the fans.
So he went further. Much further.
“I will not leave this place. Even if someone came and paid the release clause value of 150 million, I still would not leave. I don't want to leave,” he said. There was no caveat, no “for now”, no “we’ll see”. Just a flat refusal to even entertain the idea.
The only scenario he accepts is one that would cut deepest of all.
“If Athletic Bilbao tell me next season that they don't want me to continue, I'll pack my bags and go, despite the intense pain that will accompany it,” he admitted. “But as long as the club wants me to stay here, I won't move from my place.”
It is a rare inversion of the modern power dynamic. The player, at the peak of his career, hands control entirely to the club. Athletic decide when it ends. Not the market. Not a buyout clause. Not an agent’s phone call.
For Simón, this isn’t just about job security or local pride. It is about belonging. And nothing captures that better than the way he speaks about lifting the Copa del Rey with Athletic compared to standing on top of the world with Spain.
“There’s no comparison between the Copa del Rey celebrations and the World Cup celebrations,” he said. On paper, that sounds almost outrageous. The World Cup is football’s summit, the trophy every child imagines as they kick a ball against a wall. Simón knows that. He calls it “the highest any player can reach” on a professional level.
Yet his voice, and his priorities, sit elsewhere.
“For me, the five days I lived after winning the Copa del Rey alongside my friends, those close to me and my team-mates, are nothing at all like the tribute I received after the World Cup,” he explained.
The difference lies in the streets he walked, the faces he recognised, the people who have watched him grow from a local boy into a European champion. World Cup glory is global, almost distant. The Copa del Rey, with Athletic, is intimate.
“But in terms of passion, and the feelings you give to people or that people make you feel, the matter is completely different, at least for my surroundings,” he said. Those days in Bilbao, with the city roaring in red and white, cut deeper than any global spotlight.
“Those five days were among the most wonderful days of my life,” Simón added, recalling how it all reached its peak on the water. The traditional trophy parade on the boat, gliding through a city that has always defined itself through its club, left a mark that no medal ceremony could match. “They were completed in exceptional fashion with the trophy celebration procession aboard the traditional boat, which was stunning.”
In that image – the goalkeeper on the boat, the river lined with fans, the cup glinting above a sea of Athletic shirts – his stance makes perfect sense. For Simón, this is not just a club. It is home. And for now, he has made it clear: if Athletic still want him, he is not going anywhere.
