Courtois

Courtois knows his ability - even if others do not - and says his saves against Liverpool in the Champions League final made the difference.

I think I played a great game and that was the difference.” “After losing a final, I know what it means to win,” he said, when asked how this year with Madrid was different from his 2014 experience of losing the Champions League showpiece with Atletico. And he has been even better, and busier, in the Champions League. “I said at the press conference yesterday that when Madrid play in finals, they win,” Courtois also said on the Stade de France pitch after the final whistle. But he evidently did not care, as he knew he was right. He has also not been shy about pointing publicly to problems elsewhere in the team. On arrival from Chelsea in the summer of 2018, he had to edge out Navas. Courtois always had the support of club president Florentino Perez, but the Costa Rican was very popular in the dressing room, and with the fans. Asked in April 2020 for his own ranking of goalkeepers for different attributes, Courtois chose Oblak for saves, and Ter Stegen for distribution. But he was taking these new higher demands on board and making sure to deal with them. And he was not going to miss his chance. Unlike some of his peers, nobody is going to, jokingly or not, suggest he could do a job in midfield if the team needed him. Even after Navas was moved to Paris Saint-Germain 12 months later, Courtois was still not universally accepted.