Thibaut Courtois held little back after helping Real Madrid win the Champions League final, and has explained what he meant about the need to put "respect" on his name.
The Belgian number one produced a number of important saves to keep Liverpool at bay at the Stade de France. He was given the official man of the match award by UEFA after Vinicius Jr's second-half goal gave Los Blancos victory, and was quick to speak out after the final whistle.
"Today I needed to win a final - for my career, for all the hard work, to put respect on my name because I don’t think I have enough respect, especially England," the former Chelsea keeper said. "I saw a lot of criticism that I was not good enough or whatever."
Rather than keeping things in the abstract, though, he went one further. And an English magazine found itself in the firing line.
"There was a magazine, in March, that didn't put me in the top 10 [goalkeepers]," Courtois said in UEFA's post-match press conference. "I don't think they have to put me as number one, but not to be put in the top 10 - it's strange."
The magazine in question appears to be FourFourTwo, who include Courtois at number two in their current 'Best Goalkeepers in the World' list but did not have him among the top 10 in March.
The newer list has changed in more than one way since March, with previous number two David de Gea now at number 10 and Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson (at the time of writing) having claimed top spot from previous holder Edouard Mendy. Mirror Football has found an archived version of the March article, and FourFourTwo have been approached for comment.
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Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti was asked about Courtois omission from the earlier list back in March, ahead of his team's league win at Mallorca. “That is nonsense. Don’t ask me to tell you what I think of Courtois,” he said at the time, as reported by Football Italia.
“For me, he’s the best goalkeeper in the world, but I’m biased. Dani Carvajal and [Ferland] Mendy are the same for me in their position. If you say that about Courtois, you have to give up your journalism or coaching license.”
The 30-year-old goalkeeper has been an ever-present in the Champions League for Real Madrid across the last two seasons, helping the Spanish champions beat Liverpool in both campaigns. Eight years have passed since he represented Atletico Madrid in the final against his current club, and he now has his first European title since arriving from Chelsea in 2018.
“I am just really happy and proud of the performance of the team," Courtois told BT Sport after the victory. "We stuck to it and when I needed to be there, I was there for the team.
“I think we beat the best clubs in the world; (Manchester) City and Liverpool were unbelievable this season. They fought to the end in the Premier League and Liverpool won two cups. Today they were really strong.
“I played a great game, that was the difference today because we had one important chance and we scored it.”
