The return of the former tram goalkeeper had already emerged.
For almost two years, Thibaut Courtois has no longer worn the Belgian flag on the jersey – now the trial goalkeeper from Real Madrid returns to the Belgian national football team. He “decided to make a new beginning,” announced national coach Rudi Garcia at the cadre for the Play-Off duelle in the Nations League against Ukraine (March 20/23).
This leads to strange rotation in the Belgian gate. Only a few days earlier, Koen Casteels, Belgium number one in the absence of the Madrilenen, had announced that it was “no longer available for the national team” in response to the upcoming return. The 32-year-old justified this decision with the Belgian Football Association KBVB Courtois “rolling out the red carpet”. He thinks it is “a bit strange” that he can “decide whether he will return”.
Courtois has not played for the red devils since June 2023. The FIFA World goalkeeper had made this decision from 2018 after not by the then new national coach Domenico Tedesco in the absence of Kevin de Bruyne for the game in the European Championship qualification against Austria, but Romelu Lukaku. Since then, Casteels has stood in Belgium’s goal.
Tedesco was released in mid -June, a little later Rudi Garcia presented as the successor. The Frenchman quickly made it clear that he wanted to rely on Courtois. “Even if we have quality in the goal with Matz Sels and Koen Casteels, we count on Thibaut, which I think is the best goalkeeper in the world,” said Garcia.