Courtois has recently joined Los Blancos after a spell at Premier League giants Chelsea but who is the Belgian and why are Atletico fans so annoyed with him?
Thibaut Courtois was born on the eleventh of May 1992 in Bree Belgium and started playing as a goalkeeper at local clubs at the age of just 5. Courtois graduated from the youth system of Genk before joining Chelsea aged nineteen. He was immediately loaned to Atletico Madrid where he stayed for three years where he won numerous awards such as the Europa League, Copa Del Rey, La Liga and the Ricardo Zamora trophy. He then returned to Chelsea to in 2014 to battle Cech for the place of number one. Upon his return to Chelsea the Belgian won the League Cup, won the EPL twice and received the golden glove. With Belgium Courtois represented at the FIFA World Cup 2014 and 2018 and the EURO 2016. In the World Cup 2018 he received the Golden Glove award. He recently signed for Real Madrid and will make his debut with Los Blancos on Monday.
Surely the greatest goalkeeper in the world should receive no hate however many football fans around the world hate him at the moment. Why is this? In the footballing world, it is very common to have rivalries. Some are bigger than others however they are everywhere. The biggest known rivalry is between Real Madrid and Barcelona (El Clasico) however Real Madrid are also part of another Spanish rivalry between Atletico Madrid and themselves. After Courtois signed for Los Blancos he was seen kissing their logo. This upset many Atletico fans so much that they attacked him through the internet and in real life by calling him a snake and defacing his plaque at Atletico from when he was a player there. Fans went to such an extent as to hack his Wikipedia page.
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Angus Mclaughlin