{"id":661619,"date":"2026-10-30T11:36:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T11:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/661619\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T11:36:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T11:36:10","slug":"courtoiss-return-places-him-on-a-legendary-list-at-real-madrid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/661619\/","title":{"rendered":"Courtois’s return places him on a legendary list at Real Madrid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thibaut Courtois is back between the posts for Real Madrid’s starting line-up against Racing next Sunday, with the Belgian reclaiming his place after missing the Clasico with a bout of illness<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Courtois has been the club’s undisputed number one since 2018.<\/p>\n

According to Spanish newspaper “Marca”<\/a>, his eight years at the Bernabeu have earned him a place among the best goalkeepers in the club’s history.<\/p>\n

In Santander on Sunday, he will draw level with the legendary Miguel Angel to become the third most-capped goalkeeper in Real Madrid history, on 346 appearances.<\/p>\n

Two giants still sit above him. Paco Buyo played 454 matches, while Iker Casillas tops the list with 725.<\/p>\n

Catching the Mostoles goalkeeper looks beyond Courtois, who is at least 34.<\/p>\n

His contract renewal until at least 2028 is all but done, yet age is not on his side.<\/p>\n

Casillas launched his career far younger and held the Real Madrid goal for 16 seasons.<\/p>\n

His final campaigns may have brought some turbulence, but they were enough to set a record that looks all but untouchable, at least for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

Even so, Courtois’s numbers are striking for a man who arrived only eight years ago. They could have been better still but for the cruciate ligament rupture he suffered in pre-season ahead of 2023-2024.<\/p>\n

That injury cost Thibaut 50 matches. He still returned in time to guard the Real Madrid goal in the Champions League final against Borussia Dortmund at Wembley.<\/p>\n

On that night, the Belgian proved once more why he is rated the world’s best, even if he fell short of the superhuman display he produced in the 2022 final against Liverpool.<\/p>\n

His two Champions League titles with Real Madrid leave him within touching distance of Casillas, a three-time winner, in terms of major European silverware.<\/p>\n

The rest of his haul reads: four La Liga titles, two Premier Leagues, two domestic cups, one FA Cup, three Spanish Super Cups and more besides.<\/p>\n

Most of it came in a Real Madrid shirt, though he also lifted trophies with Atletico Madrid and Chelsea, and even won the Belgian league with Genk in 2010-2011.<\/p>\n

The last two seasons have brought deep frustration on the collective front. Individually, he has battled a run of seven injuries, among them a torn meniscus that kept him out of eight matches.<\/p>\n

Real Madrid, though, have never doubted him, and the club want to extend their relationship with the Belgian.<\/p>\n

Officials at Valdebebas put it simply: “He will stay until he decides to leave”.<\/p>\n

For now, Courtois keeps writing history, adding another chapter to his career by breaking onto the podium of Real Madrid’s great goalkeeping legends. No small feat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thibaut Courtois is back between the posts for Real Madrid’s starting line-up against Racing next Sunday, with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1998,201647,297896,85,46,18617,4029,105,276634],"class_list":["post-661619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-barcelona","tag-barcelona-vs-real-madrid","tag-i-casillas","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-laliga","tag-real-madrid","tag-sports","tag-t-courtois"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}