No one celebrated Real Madrid's fourteenth like Thibaut Courtois, the Belgian goalkeeper who turned 30 on May 11 and culminated the best of his four seasons with the Whites at the Stade de France. At the foot of the pitch, designated the footballer of the match and for UEFA with the best performance by a goalkeeper in a Champions League final (he stopped Liverpool with five saves of great merit), he commented on what he felt: "For my dead, I had to win this Champions".
It has not been easy for Courtois in Madrid, far from it. Florentino Pérez signed him from Chelsea for 40 million euros after the summer of 2018, in which he had established himself as one of the best goalkeepers in the World Cup.
Courtois did not like Real Madrid for two reasons: he came to take the position of Keylor Navas, an idol at the Bernabeu and the starting goalkeeper of Zidane's three Champions Leagues and, in addition, the fans criticized him for his mattress past, where he spent three seasons on loan from the Stamford Bridge team. In fact, he was the goalkeeper who defended Simeone's men in the 2014 Lisbon final, which they lost when they practically had it won. In the preview of the final in Paris, Courtois remembered that in a very particular way: “Now I will be on the good side of history”.
However, Courtois' first year in white was very tough. The Belgian started 27 league games, but the Bernabeu insistently chanted the name of Navas, who at the end of the season ended up signing for PSG, which definitely made Courtois the bad guy in the movie in a particularly bad year for the club, without any important title and with the dismissals of Lopetegui and Solari and the improvised return of Zidane.
Despite the difficulties, Courtois made a profession of madridista faith from the beginning, assuring that he had been a fan of the club since he was a child. Nobody believed. Behind it were his declarations as a mattress maker and the suspicion that the reason for his return to Madrid was that his two children lived here, whom he had had throughout his time at the Calderón with his partner at the time, from whom had separated. During his four years at Chelsea he came to the Spanish capital very often to be with his children.
For Courtois every time he returned to the athletic feud it was sentimental torture. His plaque on the Paseo de Leyendas ended up covered in garbage and excrement and in his first two games from the stands they threw countless stuffed rats at him.
Courtois accepted everything without losing his temper. He possesses the mental toughness of a long-distance runner. A polyglot man, he speaks Flemish, French, English and Spanish perfectly, when he is reminded of his athletic past he usually says the same thing: “I gave my best and I don't regret anything”.
Courtois' performance against Liverpool was probably the best of his life, but he already had the bar very high. In the first leg of the round of 16 against PSG, the Belgian goalkeeper produced a sensational performance, including a saved penalty against Leo Messi.
In many games this season, Madrid has been supported by two players, Courtois and Benzema, a situation that is quite reminiscent of Madrid outside of Casillas and Ronaldo.
The Belgian goalkeeper is not very addicted to social networks but he is one of the Madrid footballers who does not mind giving press conferences quite often.
After the final, Courtois was undoubtedly the most requested: “I know I've been beaten, but I'm always honest when I speak. At the beginning of the game he had the feeling that he was not going to receive any goals. I have worked so many years to reach the club of my life that I knew I could not fail. Today nobody could take away my desire to win a Champions League. For my dead, I was going to win it."
