Courtois: “I’m also playing at Atlético next season”

Chelsea will loan their Belgian goalkeeper to Atlético for a third year

Posted by on June 9th, 2013 in General -

Thibaut Courtois (Getty)

Thibaut Courtois (Getty)

Thibaut Courtois has confirmed he will remain on loan at Atlético for another year. In a press conference on Saturday, while on duty with the Belgian national team, he told the gathered Belgian media: “I’m also playing at Atlético Madrid next season.”

The 21-year-old explained the rationale behind his decision, saying that “if the Devils [the Belgian national team] qualify for the World Cup and I want to go, I have to play at my club.”

He added: “The national team coach made this very clear this week to the whole squad, so I can take no chances. Besides, I can play in the Champions League with Atlético Madrid and that’s important for my development.”

Courtois has made a name for himself in a short time at Atleti, pulling off great saves time after time to help his team win a Europa League, a UEFA Super Cup and a Copa del Rey, and himself a Trofeo Zamora.

Tibu’s gaining invaluable experience at Atlético and he believes he’ll benefit from a longer stay with the Rojiblancos. New Chelsea manager José Mourinho concurs with him.

“Mourinho and I have had a short discussion. He gave his view and I gave mine. The conclusion was that Atlético is best for me. He knows Spain well and he knows that I’ll still grow,” Courtois said.

“Of course I want to work with a coach like Mourinho, but when I think hard about it, I know that I have to be in goal every week. I don’t have that assurance at Chelsea.”

“Moreover, I’ve already experienced two great years in Madrid and I want to add one more to that. Last season I took some steps forward, with my performance in the cup final as the icing on the cake.”


  • Jeronamo

    Well said Courtois

  • starvs

    Love Courtois, hate that he is owned by Chelsea.

  • kris

    Thank you Courtois.

  • Ian

    Do anybody feel like he’s only using us to develop himself as a stepping stone to go back to chelsea?

    I hope not though, and I really want him permanently…

  • freddy stringer

    Good for you & thank you for continuing to play for our Atleti, the coming year will be monumentous & you will play a strategic part in taking us forward thus taking Atleti to greater heights. Thank you again.

  • kris

    Ian, we can’t get him permanently. And that’s what loans are for; to improve yourself. But how he has helped us is fantastic and I think he loves it in Madrid. If we can buy him permanently, then that’d be great. But the fucking board needs to step up to do that.

  • vLad

    @Ian: For a loanee, he’s one of the most loyal players we ever had..
    He’ll be a world-class keeper (already in my opinion) and if we can’t sign him for good, the least we can do is to be he’s stepping stone- we owe him that

    Grande Thibaut

  • Heisenberg

    I don’t care how loyal is he, I’m just glad we can have him one more year. Because I am certain that we won’t find anyone better.
    Not that there isn’t better keepers in the world it’s just that we are not able to sign them.

  • Ahmad Hossainy

    according to FIFA rules, a player can not play on loan in one club more than 3 seasons, so that’s the last season .. after that we have 2 choices :
    1- buy him
    2- say goodbye to him

    and I do not believe that Chelsea are going to sell him, for us or for any other club .. so prepare your selves from now to lose another star.

  • starvs

    I wanted Falcao to go to Chelsea in order to get him, forever, and ever. Would have made his departure so so much better.

  • Atleti-Rus

    Yeah, we bought Falcao and he stayed for two years. We didn’t buy Courtois and he stays for three. In terms of modern football it’s already a long time. Let’s just enjoy his game one more year and watch him shine in the Champions League along with the team. More important is that Simeone stays for at least a couple of years.

  • Scott LInd

    I think the situation would be the same if we had bought him from Genk two years ago, he’d probaply still leave after next season. Just look at his perfomances and his achievements! No wonder Chelsea won’t let him leave, he’s top class.

  • Ahmad Hossainy

    Maybe you right Scott, if we have bought Courtois from Genk we could still sold him after 2 or 3 seasons .. I mean if we sold our “Canterano” De Jea so for sure we would sold Courtois

    However, if have bought him before Chelsea did we could cashed a lot of money after selling him .. but now we are paying Chelsea about 2 million euros every season and we are developing Courtois for them :((

    and talking about Atleti goalkeeping, just read in MRACA that Asenjo wants to leave because he needs to play and that Atleti are welling to let him go
    I think we should let him go but on loan to one of La Liga teams and not selling him, and keep Joel and give him some chances in the cup and after the season ends we decide if we gonna keep one of them, both or none.

  • Dircil

    with 25 millions, I would bet on Mario rather Negredo

  • ali_

    negredo would not cost 25 million, he represented by doyen group so… and please NO MARIO!

  • guyz i’v been wathching videos on youtube for Negredo..he is really a high class forwarder with strong left foot and excellent finishing!!he is a quality of complete attacker!

  • Paulo

    Negredo is an asshole. Unloyal, soulless and a perfect fit for a bandwagon fan, who just wants success.
    The motherfucker played for Real Madrid and Sevilla…
    Disrespected Atleti in every game he played against us.
    Life ain’t FIFA. We need someone, who can proudly say: “I would never play for Real Madrid!”

    I guess some of you don’t understand anything about tradition, loyalty and WHY are we supporting Atletico.
    If Negredo would ever come to atleti (which is a disgrace), he would be booed by some of the fans. Most of the ARAB MONEY won’t understand this. EVER.

  • kris

    No fucking way Negredo is coming to Atleti. If we sign him, I will be so pissed. Not only do I not like his playing style but also his character in life. This guy is a bitch and doesn’t deserve to play for a club like Atletico Madrid. Sign someone who is younger and willing to play for us for at least five years.

  • Alex21

    We cannot sign Negredo..please..

  • Ahmad Hossainy

    actually Paulo I’m an Arab and I was on the first people who rejected the Idea of buying Negredo through my comments in this website

    in fact I hate Sevilla more than I hate Real Madrid, in 3 games for Atleti against them this season 7 players of them have been sent off .. what the fuck !!

    and what bothers me a lot is that some people in media are saying that there is a rivalry between Atleti & Sevilla !!
    in what universe a team with 1 La Liag title and 5 Copas del Rey become a rival for a team with 9 Ligas, 10 Copas, 5 European Cups & 1 intercontinental ?!!

    we must not pay a euro to those pitches and we must not give one of their players the honor of playing in The Champions League.

  • Arjit

    I do agree, I do not like negredo. He had a good season sure but he’s not atletico material. Plus he’s got real madrid roots, and i hate sevilla. I’d rather not sign any forward at all than sign negredo. Where will diego costa play if we sign another forward? i though we were counting on him and adrian to return to form the following season…

  • vLad

    Funny.. lot’s of Atleti fans hate (really really hate) Sevilla.. Count me in

  • me too i hate Sevilla and i hate him. He is a good player but his attitude towards Atletico is very poor and we wont want him because he is a former real madrid player. So forget him :D.

  • Willen

    I think Negredo is a “good” player and nothing more than “good”. We would need to spend tons of money to sign him and we could get two or three “good” or “excellent” player from South America, for instance, and sell them two or three years latter for 3 times that price. Yeah, I copied Oporto’s business model, but it works like hell, right?

    Seriously, we could get 2 “Negredos” in South America for any price we would pay for him in Spain.

  • It looks like Demichelis and Toulalan are on our radar. hmm.
    But I don’t think we have enough money for both of them though. I like Toulalan. Demichelis we have seen over the past years what a great player he has been. Things look positive ahead of this transfer window

  • kris

    FUCKING HELL! I have been reading that Negredo is 17m plus Baptistao or Pizzi. [edited homophobic slur]. I don’t want Baptistao to leave. Leo has to play. This guy was a beast for Vallecano last season. He can be better than Negredo when he starts playing under Simeone. Pizzi would develop too. We wasted 13.5 mil for nothing? Seriously?? Don’t bring NEGREDO.

  • EC

    €17 mil plus pizzi is a good deal IMO. That would value pizzi at around €8 mil. I would also like to keep baptistao and can’t see him being part of the deal seeing as we signed him just a few days ago, maybe a loan deal plus money for negredo?. I seem to be in the minority but Negredo fits our game style and also would be fairly cheap IMO for €20 – €25 mil

  • Martin Rosenow

    @kris Next time you use a homophobic slur in here, you will be banned. That goes for anyone else.

  • Alex21

    That is a terrible deal. I don’t think we need to loan out anyone besides Asenjo. Keep Pizzi and Leo for the bench. We would have QUALITY subs in the CL. I get tired of seeing such a high turnover rate with Atleti. Lets use the players we have – exception of course goes to the guy who’s on the title of this thread.

  • Jimbo_With_the_Dancingshoes

    @randy german

    Demichelis (32) would be a great buy. Considering that he has alot of experience both in la liga and Champions league expeciely the fact that he would be free for us makes him interesting. The only down side is that (according to MARCA) Cholo Simeone wants a center-half there is also able to play fullback. Personly I can only thing of one such center-half thats Sergio Ramos who, to be honest, we´re probebly not gonna sign.

  • Jimbo_With_the_Dancingshoes

    That means by buying Demi and by selling Cata we would actually make money (I know it wont be much, but hey money is money) on strengthening our team. That´s damn good bussiness.

  • kris

    Is Demichelis for free? I thought his contract expired at Malaga. Exactly Alex. I would rather not buy a striker than buy Negredo. And keep both Pizzi and Leo. Leo will obviously improve. He is better than Neymar for already for sure. He has the ability to outrun and trick opponents,score, and he is not a ball hog.

  • EC

    We need an experienced finisher and negredo was the top goal scorer in la liga outside of the big three and tbh he only scored about 4 less than falcao but he only got to take about 4 pens falcao took 8. His goal scoring was similar to falcaos this season (not arguing he is a better player though). If negredo was doing that in the premiership clubs would want about €40 mil for him. He is big strong, more mobile than people think and most importantly he scores goals.

  • piserakos

    for 20mill bring negredo… this is a good price for more no… demichelis is free? if he hasn’t an enormus salary we should bring him and sell cata

  • Ahmad Hossainy

    looks like we have a majority here, most of us don’t want Negredo
    and also looks like that your voices have been heard, a report at AS talked about “Atleti-Negredo” subject and mentioned that many Atleti fans do not want him

    @Kris : I read that article about paying 17 M for Negredo + Leo or Pizzi, and as I understood it will be for a one year loan of one of these two, not a permanent transfer, because Sevilla are asking for 20 M, and we bought Pizzi for 13 M, so if it was a transfer so we are paying them 30 M

    but either ways I don’t agree with this deal

    @Randy : I guess we can afford both Toulalan & Demichelis, I believe the second has only one year left in his contract and that beside his age (32) makes his price low

    I think both could cost us less than 15 M, and that is an affordable amount of money IF we forget the idea of signing a super star striker (and I believe we should), we have four good strikers : Adrian, Costa, Pizzi & Leo

    in my opinion, signing a CD, a DM and a creative attacking midfielder is much more important than signing what everybody calls “Falcao’s replacement” .. we already have a Falcao’s replacement, his name is Diego Costa !

    and as @Willen said : “Negredo is a (good) player and nothing more than (good)” .. we already have more than one (good) striker, so why we need Negredo?!!

  • Arjit

    I completely agree with Ahmad. Just buy Diego, Toulalan, Demichelis and start preparing for preseason. I’m willing to bet money that if Diego Costa plays as our main striker he’ll score goals than Negredo next season. Negredo has always been decent, one good season doesn’t change his past average seasons. Leo baptistao is 20 years old! he’s got much room to grow and he was already great this past season. On top of that, for ~20mill, at least buy a player worthy of that price tag. We bought Forlan for that much a few years back, torres left for 25 million, Aguero came in 21 million. 20 million is a lot of money, and Negredo really isnt worth that kind of money.

    IBRAHIMOVIC, went to cash-bags PSG for 21 million. How can we not get anybody better than negredo with a ~20 million budget, seriously?

  • Alex21

    I have also seen a report for Fiorentina’s Ljajic. Has anyone formed an opinion of him?

  • ali_

    arjit: the market was totally different when we bought (or sold) those players. nowadays 20 mil is kinda nothing for a quality striker.

  • piserakos

    alex because i like fiorentina ljajic is a really great player he is a top class winger and he can play also as a cf and st if the price is about 10mil then it is a superb singing… i real that demichelish is free and toulalan price is about 5mil… if demichelich contract isn’t enormous(well he can ask 5-6mil) then we should buy them both..

  • Jimbo_With_the_Dancingshoes

    @Alex21

    Adem Ljiajic would be great! Maybe a better signing than Diego Ribas (Uuuh). Take a listen to this:
    1: He´s only 21.
    2: He plays as either a supporting striker or an offensive midfielder.
    3: He has scored 12 goals and provided 8 assists in 31 games, making him directly involved in two out three games he has played this season. Bravo.
    4: BUT he is also wanted by big clubs with money like Manchester United and Chelsea (who practecly are rumoured to buy half of europe), United although has been very close to buying before his move to Fiorentina, when playing for Partizan as a youngster, but the deal fell trough at the very last.
    5: Also maybe Fiorentina don´t even need to sell their wonderkid as Jovetic might go for a big bag of money, leaving them financially able to keep him, if that´s what they want.
    6: He´s man-on-man, fast tricky, nice shooting ability and then he´s a bid of a free-kick specialist.
    7: So actually he has many of the same qualities as our own Pizzi, although I see Pizzi as more of an creativ midfilder/wing then an striker, where I see Ljajic as a striker.
    8: All in all I would welcome him with open arms, for the right price off cause 😉
    9: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_DajhQjU_A

  • Jimbo_With_the_Dancingshoes

    * …directly involved in a goal in two out of three games…

  • Kaminero

    Yesterday a number of Spanish papers claimed that Negredo had already agreed personal terms with Atlético and even the deal between Sevilla and Atlético was close. Today Sevilla announces that they haven’t received any offer from Atlético.

    Mario Gómez is now mentioned by a couple of papers as a new striker option.

  • Alex21

    Well Jimbo, you convinced me. Thank you good sir.

    Lets get it done!!! Hahaha.

  • http://espnfc.com/news/story/_/id/1475513/atletico-madrid-hunt-gomez?cc=3888
    Looks like we want Mario. :D. Very good player IMO. he can score goals and a lot of them. He has UCL experience. Since he was a bench warmer for most of last season, Bayern may take a price like 25 – 30 Million euros into consideration for him which is a good price considering last season he made 32 appearances (19 sub) and scored 19 goals which isn’t bad at all. And if we could get him at that price, then we could buy toulalan for 5 million, and a creative midfielder for about 15-20, and Demichelis would come in free. :D. Sounds like a good transfer market.

    The money from Falcao sale should be spent like this IMO.

    Mario Gomez- 25 – 30 Million (I like him)
    Creative Midfielder- 15 – 20 Million.
    Toulalan(capable at CB and DM)- 5 -8 million.
    Demichelis- Free.

    Thats our Summer transfer market right there ^^ 😀

    I have trust in Leo and Costa to lead the line so if we don’t get that “killer” striker we could use both of them up front because they impressed last season.

  • Silchas

    I would rather spent 20mio for Negredo( who i really don’t like) than 30mio for Gomez, who ca’t score goals outside of the box. 😀

  • Arjit

    Falcao couldn’t score outside of the box either. Also clearly market hasn’t changed that much, the IBRA transfer was last year, balotelli moved to Milan for a similar price last winter. I would welcome Gomez with open arms though.

  • EC

    Falcao did score some brilliant goals from outside the box, but I get your point. I don’t see much difference between Gomez and Negredo. Both would be good additions to the team I think

  • Alex21

    How about:
    Toulalan for 5
    Diego or Ljajic for 10-15
    And Damiao/Christian Benitez for around 10-15.

    I don’t understand spending every cent earned this year. That’s terrible business. I don’t want either Gomez or negredo. I think they are both overhyped. We have a number 9 already! Diego Costa has more than proved himself. We still have Adrian, and we just picked up Leo. Why not pick up another young striker for cheap instead of spending big bucks for someone who isn’t even wanted.

  • kris

    Alex, why you want Chucho Benitez? I doubt he will do well in La Liga. Jimbo, I didn’t know much about Lijajic, thank you. If he scored 12 and assisted 8 in Serie A, a league known for it’s defense, then surely he is great. I am not sure if our dumb Board wants to sign him though. He seems like a great player and YOUNG. I wonder though, will he stay with us for at least FIVE to SIX years? I want long term players, not players that keep on moving every two to three years.

  • Alex21

    I was only using Benitez as an example for the financial standpoint that I’d like to see happen. I’d agree he’s not great, nor do i think he would succeed in Spain. Im having trouble understanding the concept of buying another star just because we lost one.

  • Ahmad Hossainy

    Alex : I also read the reports about Ljajic, but they are suggesting that Atleti are waiting until his contract expires next season, but if Atleti are waiting I don’t think other clubs will wait, and also I don’t think Fiorentina are that stupid to let him leave for free

    Jimbo mentioned interesting informations about him, I actually do not know him very well, but I’m impressed by Fiorentina in general, they were one of the smartest clubs in the transfer market last summer .. although they are not so rich (like Atleti) but they signed many great players with a little amount of money:
    Rossi, Toni, Cuadrado, El Hamdaoui, Aquilani & Borja Valero (where have Caminero been when they signed him ?!!)
    beside some young and talented players like Stefan Savić and “my compatriot” Ahmad Hegazi .. and not to mention Jovetić who they signed him at 2008 and Ljajić who came at 2009

    I repeat again : “smart signing” is the only way to survive in this “cruel” era of football history

    Arjit : I have to agree with Ali, now the players market is inflated .. 20 million is not big money these days, thanks to the Arabs and the Russians

    But this is not the only problem, there is also an inflation in the salaries, now Ronaldo is sad because he only earns 10 million a year, Eto’o earns 20 M in a club from Dagestan, a country many people never heard about it!

    I believe we can afford players like Suarez, Lewandowski even Cavani (we bought Falcao! ) .. but there is no way we can afford their salaries

    while Falcao, the best striker in the planet was earning 3.5M, Yaya Toure, the midfielder was earning 13M bounds (15M euros) .. imagine what does that make Falcao feels, and that’s one of the reasons we couldn’t keep him

    finally I agree with the people who prefer Mario Gomez, who watches Bundesliga and Germany National Team like me will know why.

  • Arjit

    I personally don’t even want another striker coming in. I think Diego Costa can handle being on top. With the help of Leo Baptistao/Pizzi/Adrian and Diego Ribas/Turan/Oliver carving out openings, I think we can score just as many if not more goals than last season. With that said, Gomez > Negredo

  • Kulan

    We are going to play 50-60 games next season, so we need another striker besides Costa. Baptistao and Adrian are both secondary strikers and don’t score that many goals themselfs. I say let’s go for Torres! Mourinho has said in the open that he doesen’t want Torres and I believe we can lure him back and lower his wage. He would fit perfectly in Cholo’s way of playing.

  • kris

    As much as I admire and appreciate El Nino. I believe he isn’t the striker we need at the moment. He still gots it, though, he scored 20+ goals last season and next season he will score more but I don’t believe he is the man we need for next season.

  • kris

    Personally though,for me he is welcome back to Atleti at anytime.