A weeek ago this race had more than two names bunched near the top. After Tuesday's semifinals, only two remain.
Spain's Unai Simón has taken over the Golden Glove market on Kalshi, and the numbers explain why on their own: his share price sits at 86%, and Emiliano Martínez from Argentina at 12%. Mike Maignan, the frontrunner as recently as last week, has fallen to 0% now that France is out.
Simón Doesn't Need Highlight Reels to Stay Ahead
Spain beat France 2-0 in Tuesday's semifinal, with Mikel Oyarzabal converting a first-half penalty and Pedro Porro adding a second goal late on. Simón didn't need a spectacular save to get through it. He just kept doing what he's done all tournament: hold his position, read plays before they develop, and start Spain's attacks with his feet as much as his hands.
That clean sheet was his sixth of the tournament, a single-World Cup record for a goalkeeper.
It also capped a run of close to 650 minutes without conceding across this World Cup and the last one, a streak that outlasted Walter Zenga's 517-minute mark from 1990.
Simón credits a lot of his ball-playing to national team coach Luis Enrique, saying no one had ever really taught him how to build play out from the back until they started working together.
Martínez Chases a Record No Keeper Has Ever Set
No goalkeeper in World Cup history has won back-to-back Golden Gloves, and Emiliano Martínez, who won it in 2022, would be breaking new ground if he adds a second one in New Jersey.
He got there by helping Argentina come from behind to beat England 2-1, with Messi setting up both late goals before Enzo Fernández and Lautaro Martínez turned the game around in the final ten minutes.
Martínez has fewer clean sheets than Simón this summer, but the award has historically leaned toward goalkeepers on the winning side: four of the last five Golden Gloves went to the champion's keeper, and his reputation for shootout heroics still counts for something in a 48-team format with more knockout rounds than any World Cup before it.
One goalkeeper won't be part of any of it.
Cape Verde's Josimar "Vozinha" Dias, the self-taught 40-year-old who kept his side alive with a string of saves against Argentina, dropped out of the market weeks ago. But nobody who watched him hold off the champions in Miami has forgotten it, and this weekend's finalists are chasing a bar he set without ever needing a trophy for it.
