Thibaut Courtois

Thibaut Courtois
Thibaut Courtois at the 2018 World Cup
Personnel
Surname	Thibaut Nicolas Marc Courtois
birthday	May 11, 1992
place of birth	Bree ,  Belgium
size	199 cm
position	goal
Juniors
Years	station
1997-1999	Bilzen VV
1999-2009	KRC Genk
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
2009-2011	KRC Genk	41 (0)
2011-2018	Chelsea FC	126 (0)
2011-2014	→  Atlético Madrid  (loan)	111 (0)
2018–	real Madrid	61 (0)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals) 2
2009-2010	Belgium U18	4 (0)
2011–	Belgium	70 (0)
1 Only league games are given. Status: end of season 2019/20 2 As of November 18, 2018

Thibaut Nicolas Marc Courtois (born May 11, 1992 in Bree ) is a Belgian football goalkeeper . He is under contract with Real Madrid and is a Belgian international .

Career

In the club

Youth and KRC Genk

Courtois was born to Belgian volleyball professionals Gitte and Thierry Courtois. Unlike his siblings, he decided to play football and started playing football at the age of five at Bilzen VV in the town of the same name , which is located south of Genk and about 40 km from Bree . He stayed there for three years and switched to the youth department of KRC Genk at the age of eight . At first he played there as a left defender and, according to his own statements, only became a goalkeeper in the age group of ten to eleven years old .

He made his debut in the goal of the professional team a few years later at the age of 16 at 2-2 on April 17, 2009 in the league game against KAA Gent . He started the season as one of the club's six goalkeepers. After Logan Bailly and Sinan Bolat left the club for the winter break, Davino Verhulst was temporarily suspended and Sem Franssen was injured, he was given preference over Koen Casteels of the same age and came to his first competitive game. It remained his only one until the end of the season and beyond, because he spent the entire 2009/10 season with the second team of KRC Genk.

At the beginning of the 2010/11 season , then coach Franky Vercauteren had a goalkeeping problem again, as Verhulst was injured and there were difficulties with the transfer of László Köteles . Therefore, Courtois initially played both in the Europa League qualification against Inter Turku and in the first three league games. After these games, he extended his contract to 2014 on August 17, 2010, although he previously A. TSG Hoffenheim is said to have received an offer . Two days later he and Genk lost the first leg of the Europa League play-offs 2-0 and the second leg a week later 4-2 against FC Porto , which later won the competition. In the further course of the season he played all 40 possible league games and was surprisingly  Belgian champion with Genk before the standard Liège tied - the number of points from the regular season was decisive. Due to his performances during the season and a total of only 39 goals against, he was voted Belgium's goalkeeper of the year and also the best player of the season for KRC Genk.

On loan in Madrid

Thibaut Courtois in Atlético Madrid jersey (2013)

In July 2011, Chelsea FC acquired the transfer rights to Courtois for a transfer fee of around nine million euros and loaned him directly to Atlético Madrid . There he should gain match practice and experience in order to later succeed Petr Čech at Chelsea. The goalkeeper commented on this and is quoted with the following words:

“Chelsea see me as Petr Čech's successor. It won't happen in a year or two, but in three, four or five years ... "

At Atlético he succeeded David de Gea , who had moved to Manchester United . As the new regular goalkeeper, he did not concede any goals in his first games - in the Europa League against Vitória Guimarães and in the first four of six in the league. Also in the period from January to February he stayed a total of 578 minutes without conceding before he was overcome in the 1-1 draw with Sporting Gijón . At the end of the 2011/12 season he was fifth with Atlético and reached the final of the UEFA Europa League. In the final, he faced Athletic Bilbao with Madrid and won 3-0. Shortly after winning the Europa League, the loan to Madrid was extended for another year. After the summer break, he met the Champions League winner in the UEFA Super Cup on August 31 , his actual employer, Chelsea FC. He won the duel between the two European Cup winners from last year with Atlético 4-1. In the 2012/13 season Courtois and his team were third in the league and Spanish Cup winners . In the final, they beat city rivals Real Madrid . In June 2013, the loan deal was extended for a third year. In 2013/14 he won the Spanish championship for the first time with Atletico and was named the best goalkeeper in the league for the second time. In the semi-finals of the Champions League , he met Chelsea again and won again (3-1), after UEFA had made it clear that Chelsea should not have any influence on Courtois' action, they had to beat city rivals Real Madrid with 1: 4 ( n.V.) bend.

Chelsea FC

In the 2014/15 season Courtois was in the squad of Chelsea for the first time . There he prevailed against Petr Čech  - a regular goalkeeper for ten years - at the beginning of the season and stood in the Blues' goal in the 3-1 away win against Burnley FC on matchday one . In September 2014 Courtois signed a new five-year contract until June 30, 2019. On March 1, 2015, he celebrated winning the League Cup after defeating city rivals Tottenham Hotspur , he himself was only on the bench in the final.

Return to Madrid

For the season 2018/19 Courtois returned to Madrid back and signed with Real Madrid signed a contract with a term until 30 June 2024th

In the national team

Courtois at the 2018 World Cup

In 2009 and 2010 Courtois played four friendly matches for the Belgian U-18 team . The following year he was for the friendly against Slovenia for the first time in the squad of the senior team called and was little later against France debut. He played the full length and did not have to accept a goal, the game ended 0-0. In his second international match against Montenegro he suffered a knee injury, so that he had to be substituted in the 50th minute against Jean-François Gillet . A few months later, however, he faced the Netherlands for the second time over the full season and has since been number 1 in the Belgian goal.

In qualifying for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil , he played all 10 games. After 8 games he had only 2 goals conceded and so in the penultimate game with the 2-1 win against Croatia the participation in the World Cup was secured. Then Courtois was accepted by Marc Wilmots as a regular goalkeeper in the World Cup squad . He reached the quarter-finals with Belgium, where they were eliminated 0-1 against eventual runner-up Argentina .

In the following years Courtois remained undisputed in goal. In qualifying for the European Football Championship in 2016 , he played eight games, but missed the last two games due to a meniscus injury. The 0: 1 against Wales in his 31st national team appearance on June 12, 2015 was only the second defeat in his 31st international match. Nevertheless, the country qualified sovereignly and was even number 1 in the FIFA world rankings at times . Coach Marc Wilmots nominated Courtois at the end of May 2016 as number 1 for the Belgian squad for the European Championships in France. He played all five games until the team was eliminated in the quarter-finals. He also took part with the national team in the 2018 World Cup, where they finished third after beating England 2-0 in the game for third place. He himself was awarded the Golden Glove as the tournament's best goalkeeper.

titles and achievements

society

KRC Genk

• Belgian champion : 2011
• Belgian Cup Winner : 2009 (without commitment)

Atlético Madrid

• UEFA Europa League : 2012
• UEFA Super Cup : 2012
• UEFA Champions League : 2014 finalist
• Spanish champion : 2014
• Spanish Cup Winner : 2013

Chelsea FC

• English champion : 2015 , 2017
• English cup winner : 2018
• English league cup winner : 2015

real Madrid

• FIFA Club World Champions : 2018
• Spanish Super Cup winner : 2019
• Spanish champion : 2020

Individual awards

• Belgian Sportsman of the Year : 2014
• FIFA - World's Best Goalkeeper : 2018
• IFFHS - World Goalkeeper : 2018
• Golden glove as the best goalkeeper of the World Cup: World Cup 2018
• Belgian Goalkeeper of the Year: 2011
• Zamora Trophy : 2013 , 2014 , 2020

Private

Thibaut Courtois is the brother of volleyball player Valérie Courtois .

Web links

Commons : Thibaut Courtois  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Thibaut Courtois in the database of the Belgian Football Association (English)
• Thibaut Courtois in the database of kicker.de
• Thibaut Courtois in the database of weltfussball.de
• Thibaut Courtois in the database of transfermarkt.de
• Thibaut Courtois in the database of National-Football-Teams.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Student Thibaut Courtois is the great Genker support. grenzecho.net, accessed July 2, 2012 . 
2. ^ Thibaut Courtois. chelseafc.com, archived from the original on July 2, 2012 ; accessed on October 26, 2018 (English). 
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Courtois completed. Chelsea Football Club, July 26, 2011, archived from the original on October 30, 2014 ; accessed on November 27, 2018 (English). 
4. ↑ 16-year-old doelman Courtois helps herboren Genk aan punt. demorgen.be , accessed on July 2, 2012 (Dutch). 
5. ↑ RC Genk with 16-year-old keeper from AA Gent. nieuwsblad.be , accessed July 2, 2012 (Dutch). 
6. ↑ Doelman Thibaut Courtois dead 2014 at Genk. nieuwsblad.be, accessed July 2, 2012 . 
7. ↑ Genk is Belgian champion. kicker.de , accessed on July 2, 2012 . 
8. ↑ ^{a b} Perisic Profvoetballer van het Jaar, Courtois best doelman. Gazet van Antwerp, accessed July 2, 2012 (Dutch). 
9. ↑ ^{a b c} Courtois is to be Cech's successor. kicker.de, accessed on July 2, 2012 . 
10. ↑ ^{a b} Fix: Chelsea's new goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois changes to Atletico Madrid on loan. goal.com, accessed July 2, 2012 . 
11. ↑ Four times Messi! Barça defeated Valencia from behind. kicker.de, accessed on July 2, 2012 . 
12. ↑ Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois stays with Atletico Madrid for another season. goal.com, accessed July 2, 2012 . 
13. ↑ BBC Sport - Chelsea 1-4 Atletico Madrid. bbc.co.uk , accessed September 1, 2012 . 
14. ↑ Courtois completed. Chelsea FC, July 26, 2011, archived from the original on July 3, 2012 ; accessed on November 4, 2018 . 
15. ↑ UEFA Declaration on Integrity of the Competitions. In: de.uefa.org. UEFA, April 11, 2014, accessed May 27, 2014 . 
16. ↑ Courtois signs new deal chelseafc.com. Retrieved September 11, 2014. (English)
17. ↑ Official announcement: Thibaut Courtois , realmadrid.com, August 8, 2018, accessed August 8, 2018.
18. ↑ Thibaut Courtois: "Mon genou a lâché". rtbf.be , accessed on July 2, 2012 (French). 
19. ↑ Olympia Verlag GmbH (ed.): Belgium comes with van Buyten. In: kicker online. June 3, 2014, accessed June 28, 2014 . 
20. ↑ DSC volleyball women sign Valérie Courtois and Dominika Strumilo. In: dresdnersportclub.de. Dresdner SC , July 19, 2016, accessed on August 3, 2016 .