Kepa Arrizabalaga's Life and Career Journey in Football

Kepa Arrizabalaga Revuelta was born on October 3, 1994 in Ondarroa, Spain. Kepa is known as a kid with football talent. He is talented and likes to do new things. Although he really loves football, Kepa also does not want to leave his other hobby, namely raising birds. Yes, Kepa is a bird lover. He even learned a few things about the winged creature.

The little bird was introduced by the father by the father. The father often even invited Kepa to hunt birds. Usually, they hunt for golden birds from North America.

For Kepa, raising birds is not just a hobby. He even participated in a number of bird championships. Kepa has three mainstay birds named Oker, Rocky, Raikkonen. He was noted to have won the bird championship in 2008 and 2010.

Although he really loves birds, Kepa certainly does not leave his main passion, which is playing football. Born in Ondarroa, Biscay, Basque, Kepa Arrizabalaga joined the Athletic Bilbao youth team in Lezama in 2004. At that time he was only 10 years old.

Kepa himself was summoned to the main squad in 2012. On May 5, 2012, Arrizabalaga was summoned to the main squad for the La Liga match against Getafe CF, although in the end he did not appear. He was also called up for the pre-season match in July.

Despite starting his career with Bilbao, Kepa did not undergo a professional debut with the club. Kepa first spent two years with loan club Basconia in the fourth division, and also made 50 appearances for Bilbao's reserve team in the third division.

In 2013, Kepa was then promoted to the Bilbao B team to replace Jon Ander Serantes who was injured.

Playing for team B, Kepa performed consistently. He even got an offer from Getafe but Bilbao refused. On 20 July 2015, Kepa Arrizabalaga moved to Real Valladolid who also played at the second level. Kepa joined the club in a loan agreement for one season.

He played his first competitive match on August 22, in a 0-1 defeat at Cordoba CF. After returning from the loan period, Kepa Arrizabalaga was included in the first team. Initially, he was only plotted as the third choice behind Gorka Iraizoz and Iago Herrerin. But because of playing neatly, he managed to make his debut in the first team on September 11, 2016. At that time Bilbao faced Deportivo de La Coruna. Final score 1-0 to win Bilbao.

Playing under the rule of Bilbao, Kepa gets lots of flattery. At a relatively young age, he performed so brilliantly and won praise from a number of well-known coaches.

Former Spain and Real Madrid national team coach, Julen Lopetegui, gave his first international debut and entered his name as a reserve goalkeeper at the 2018 World Cup. In fact, at the tournament, Kepa almost got rid of United goalkeeper David de Gea.

When the 2018 World Cup took place, there was news that Spanish coach Fernando Hierro would get rid of David De Gea and be replaced by Kepa Arrizabalaga. Hierro is reportedly dissatisfied with the performance of the Manchester United goalkeeper, especially against Portugal and Morocco in the group stage. Kepa has been prepared for the knockout stages even though in the end De Gea remains the number one goalkeeper of the Spanish national team.

Previously, veteran coach from Argentina, Marcelo Bielsa, also had time to praise Kepa and asked Bilbao to keep the goalkeeper to be the main goalkeeper in the future.

No lag also Ernesto Valverde, who now trains Barcelona. The coach made him the first choice while still training Bilbao. Even Maurizio Sarri actually had a crush on him when he was still gushing Naples before they finally met at Chelsea.

In the Spanish youth team, Kepa has never felt an international title. Kepa had already felt the title at international level when he managed to bring Spain U-19 Euro U-19 champions in 2012. His teammates at that time were stars like Suso, Paco Alcacer, Gerard Deulofeu and Juan Bernat.

Because of his glory, Kepa really attracted the interest of a number of top European clubs, including Real Madrid. But because there are certain things, Kepa failed to land at the Santiago Bernabeu

At that time, in January 2018, Athletic Bilbao managed to convince the goalkeeper, Kepa Arrizabalaga, to extend the contract. The 23-year-old goalkeeper signed a seven-year contract and kept him tied with Les Leones until 30 June 2025.

The increase in the contract skyrocketed the goalkeeper's clause. At that time, Kepa was priced at 80 million euros or around 1.3 trillion rupiah.

Previously, Arrizabalaga was linked with Real Madrid. Los Blancos need quality goalkeepers after their two goalkeepers, Keylor Navas and Kiko Casilla appear standard.

But the agreement failed to reach because Kepa refused. He considered the decision to survive in Bilbao is the best.

Kepa, is undoubtedly one of the best talents from Spain. He is even called a goalkeeper who is good at guessing the direction of penalty kicks.

Kepa's reputation as a penalty-saving specialist started at Euro U19 in 2012, when he failed to kick France's Samuel Umtiti and Geoffrey Kondogbia on penalties in the semifinals. Thanks to his glory, Kepa helped his team reach the final party.

His last season in La Liga before joining Chelsea, he also managed to dispel a Manu Trigueros penalty from Villarreal and Malaga player Youssef En-Nesyri. He recorded 64 saves in La Liga, the third most in La Liga in that season.

Kepa itself has the nickname of the best local children. Born in the small fishing town of Ondarroa in the Basque country, he joined Athletic Bilbao at the age of 10. With the club's policy of only raising native Basque players, it is important for them to know the best young local talents and nurture them. Kepa is a prime example of the Bilbao academy system.

But his sweet journey with Bilbao ended when Chelsea dared to make up for the Kepa clause. Chelsea, through its official website, announced the recruitment of Kepa Arrizabalaga from Athletic Bilbao. The 25-year-old young man was officially the world's most expensive player goalkeeper.

The official announcement of Kepa's arrival was made by Chelsea just two hours after releasing Thibaut Courtois to Real Madrid. Kepa carried off with funds of 71.6 million pounds or the equivalent of 1.3 trillion rupiah, and at the same time beating the transfer of Liverpool goalkeeper, Alisson Becker worth 67 million pounds or the equivalent of 1.2 trillion rupiah.

At Chelsea, the Spaniard will get a seven-year contract. Post-officially uniformed with the Blues, Kepa became the sixth Spanish player in the Chelsea squad at the time after Cesar Azpilicueta, Marcos Alonso, Cesc Fabregas, Pedro Rodriguez and Alvaro Morata.

So far, Kepa is still a mainstay of Chelsea and has donated the Europa League trophy in the 2018/2019 season.