Spain star reacts to Barcelona standout being left out of La Roja squad

Luis de la Fuente named his latest Spain squad last week, and there was a lot of reaction to leaving out Barcelona goalkeeper Joan Garcia. The 24-year-old was outstanding for Espanyol last season, and he has continued that form since joining Hansi Flick’s side over the summer.

Many were shocked that Garcia missed out, as de la Fuente – who justified his decision – opted to continue with the familiar trio of Unai Simon, David Raya and Alex Remiro. And now the former has reacted to the situation.

Speaking to Radio Marca (via MD), Simon spoke highly of Garcia, as he picked out the goalkeeper’s most recent performance against Rayo Vallecano on Sunday.

“It is normal to talk about and value what a great goalkeeper Joan is. He was the one who contributed the most to his team, in this case Espanyol, and with Barcelona he has also started very well. He is having a very good campaign, just as we saw in Vallecas against Rayo.”

And while he also claimed that Garcia was the best La Liga goalkeeper last season, he believes that the trio selected by de la Fuente are more than deserving of their places.

“Courtois still seems to me to be the best goalkeeper in the world, but Joan was the best goalkeeper in La Liga last season. That doesn’t mean that the rest of us don’t feel like we’re worthless, we have a weight here.

“We have to value what the three goalkeepers who are here achieved. I value myself… I’m the goalkeeper of Athletic, two years ago we won the Zamora, last year we conceded very few goals and we won the European Championship.”

Simon is expected to start against Bulgaria and Türkiye in Spain’s opening 2026 World Cup qualifiers, with the first of those matches taking place on Thursday.