‘Public secret that Courtois is not most popular player within player group’

Did Thibaut Courtois play his last international last Saturday against Austria? Filip Joos, soccer commentator at VRT, doesn’t think so. “But he did under Domenico Tedesco, I guess…”

And that will be a big loss for the Italian-German coach and the Belgian national team, which has been under his direction since February. Courtois, after all, is a world-class goalkeeper. The six-foot-two ‘Tarantula’ proved that again in the European Championship qualifier match with the Austrians in which he made a clever save at 1-1, saving a point for the home side.

Moreover, also a closing post with a wealth of experience, gained at Chelsea, Atlético Madrid and, since 2018, Real Madrid, but certainly also with the Red Devils. Prior to the game against Austria, he was put in the limelight for his 100th international game, a milestone he reached at the World Cup against Croatia.

But a piece of dust, as Joos puts it, has become unequivocal divisive. In the absence of the injured Kevin De Bruyne, Tedesco had appointed two substitute captains: striker Romelu Lukaku would wear the band on his arm against Austria and, three days later, Courtois in the away game with Estonia.

But there will be none of that tonight: after Saturday’s game at the King Baudouin Stadium, the 31-year-old goalkeeper got into a verbal altercation with the national coach and a day later he was gone. Home. In his wrath because of the course of events surrounding that “piece of dust.”

Later, Courtois wanted to make it appear that a knee injury was playing tricks on him, and he asked the national coach to bring out that same reason, as a white lie, but the coach refrained. Again to the goalkeeper’s displeasure, who accused Tedesco of having made a private conversation public.

But perhaps even worse than the battle for the captaincy, Joos finds Courtois’ behavior after the game against Austria. “It then came to an outburst of anger in the dressing room. He showed that it was an eyesore to him that he had to play with a number of relegated players in the team. Where those players were just sitting there.”

Four of them were in the starting lineup, but in particular Wout Faes and Timothy Castagne, posted right in front of him in the defensive line, who were relegated from the Premier League with Leicester City, had to suffer at the hands of the six-time national champion and former Champions League winner.

“Castagne is in the interest of Arsenal and Juventus,” Joos nuances. “Not a sucker, then. But anyone who watched Leicester play last season knows that these players never let down their guard and never let down their teammates.”

“And now our national goalkeeper does. And that disappoints enormously. Lionel Messi also had no qualms about playing soccer with Gonzalo Montiel during the World Cup, who was a benchwarmer at Sevilla, which was still fighting relegation at the time. The same Montiel shot the decisive penalty kick in the final in Qatar.”

“It is an open secret that Courtois is not the most popular player within the player group,” said Sporza analyst Peter Vandenbempt. “With this way of acting and his statements, that situation has not improved and Courtois’ desire to return may be even smaller.

But something else is at play in the background: the celebrated goalkeeper is getting married next weekend. “Perhaps from Estonia it is difficult to check the flower arrangements on the tables and he had counted on not having to play that match,” he said. Which might have been possible under Tedesco’s predecessor Roberto Martínez, who was used to pampering the top players.”

Surely the whole affair took Joos by surprise. “Yes, somewhat so. I know him as very honorable and mentally improbably strong. Someone who doesn’t let himself off the hook easily. But also stubborn, super-headed. I don’t easily expect him to say: I was wrong. It will be very difficult to get out of this. Courtois has cut all the grass in front of his feet.”

Vandenbempt also believes the closing post has put himself in an awkward position. “Courtois tries to set the criticism straight with his side of the story, his truth. But surely the general tenor in public opinion is that Courtois has let down his teammates and that he puts his own ego above the group interest.”