Thibaut Courtois is a Belgian footballer who was born in 1992 on May 11th. He is considered one of the most promising young goalkeepers, and this really can be considered true. Well, it's worth talking about his career and what awards the young goalkeeper has already managed to get.
early years
Thibault Courtois was born in the city of Bre. As a matter of fact, there he began his football career. At the age of five, the boy went to the academy at the Bilsen club. In this youth team, the young footballer played for almost three years - until the moment he had to move to Genk. He went there with his family when he was eight. There he went to FC Genk, where he took the position of left-back. For ten years, Thibault played in the youth team. By the way, he quite a long time held the position of defender. However, then he switched to a new one, which at that time was not yet familiar to him. Nevertheless, in the goalkeeper business, the Belgian showed himself very well. Thibault Courtois, whose height without a centimeter is two meters, was supposedly created in order to stand in a frame. So since then he takes the position of goalkeeper.
Professional career: start
Thibaut Courtois, whose photo is presented above, began his professional career at Genk. His first match was held against another Belgian club, which is called “Gent”. One has only to think: Thibault Courtois entered the field in the main team of an adult team at 16! And all because the club had a shortage of good goalkeepers. And indeed this position was not popular. So Thibault began to regularly appear on the field as part of the Top Division. This was further facilitated by the fact that something constantly happened to all the other goalkeepers - either fractures, then cards, then the transition to other clubs.
True, the next season, 2009/2010, turned out to be a failure for Courtois, to put it mildly - he never once entered the field for the whole year, and sat all the time as a substitute. But in 2010/2011 Thibault was chosen as the first goalkeeper of the team. He even participated in the preliminary stage of such a tournament as the UEFA Europa League. And only after three matches in the Belgian championship, that is, on August 18 of the same year, the goalkeeper signed a contract with the club. Prior to this, no contracts were concluded.
Thibault Courtois played 44 matches that season and helped his team win the Belgian title with a good game.
Care at Chelsea
In 2011, as soon as Thibault managed to sign a contract with Genk, he was interested in the London club Chelsea. On July 14, it became known that the teams had agreed that Courtois would join the team for 5,000,000 pounds. The terms were agreed quickly, and Thibault signed the five-year contract with pleasure. Of course, representatives of “Genk” tried to persuade the Belgian to stay, but the goalkeeper was adamant.
However, in the same month Chelsea leased their newly acquired football player to Atletico Madrid. In the debut match for the Spaniards, Thibaut Courtois spent on the field all 90 minutes and did not miss a single goal.
Interesting Facts
Thibaut Courtois managed to achieve a lot in his short career. He became the champion of the Pro League and the owner of the Belgian Cup with “Genk”. Then, playing for the Madrid “Atletico”, he won the Spanish Primera with the club. Then he became the winner of the Europa League and the owner of the UEFA Super Cup. He also won with the team in the Spanish Cup.
But then he returned to Chelsea, where he was unable to play before rent. However, despite this, he helped the London club on the move win the Premier League and the Football League Cup.
Courtois also became the best goalkeeper of the Belgian Pro League in 2011, as well as the owner of the Zamora trophy (twice). In addition, he was awarded the title of best goalkeeper in Spain. Examples and status of the athlete of the year in Belgium.