De Ketelaere ends Unai Simón's World Cup goalkeeping record

Belgian player Charles De Ketelaere has ended Spanish goalkeeper Unai Simón's historic run of 649 minutes without conceding a goal in the World Cup. De Ketelaere's goal in the quarterfinals against Spain marked the conclusion of a record-breaking streak for the Spanish keeper.

Simón's remarkable sequence began during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The last player to score against him was Japan's Ao Tanaka on December 1, 2022, in the group stage. From that point, Simón maintained a clean sheet for the remaining 39 minutes against Japan, all 120 minutes of the Round of 16 match against Morocco (which Spain lost on penalties), and the entirety of their 2026 group stage matches against Cape Verde, Saudi Arabia, and Uruguay. He also played 180 minutes in the knockout stages against Austria and Portugal before De Ketelaere's goal.

This achievement surpassed the previous World Cup record of 517 minutes set by Italy's Walter Zenga in 1990. Simón had already broken the record for the longest streak by a Spanish goalkeeper in World Cups, surpassing Iker Casillas's 476 minutes from the 2010 and 2014 tournaments. However, Simón fell short of Zenga's mark when considering only matches within a single World Cup, missing by 28 minutes.