The day Thibaut Courtois sustained the injury that might have ended his season before it had begun, he arrived home, bandage covering the whole of his left leg, slowly got out of his car and told the friend waiting for him: “I’m going to win the Champions League; there’s still time.”
Nine months and a second torn ligament later, this time in the other knee, after seemingly endless hours of work, the pain and the fear, and with the help of surgeons, physios and the goalkeeper who took Real Madrid there in his absence, he could. And with that, he has won already.
