Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois is elite between the posts, but he also has skills on the ball.
Thibaut Courtois is on a mission to win the Zamora Trophy for the 2019-2020 La Liga season, as the Real Madrid star is currently leading the league in clean sheets. The Belgian also has allowed the fewest goals per 90 minutes at 0.58, and he has the highest save percentage at 79.1 percent. Basically, he’s hands-down the best goalkeeper in the league and probably the best in the world, considering Jan Oblak and Marc Andre ter Stegen are in the same league.
But Courtois isn’t just a great goalkeeper who can make astounding save and command his box well. Courtois does sometimes show weaknesses on the ball with poor passes, but he’s not short on skill. It’s easy to forget that the vast majority of professional players, especially those at Real Madrid, have great technique. Even the goalkeepers.
On his Instagram page, Courtois shared a video of himself juggling the ball at poolside after a great first touch, and then flicking the ball perfectly with his left foot into a hoop set up on the edge of the pool.
Here’s the video, courtesy of ESPN FC.
Courtois has returned to La Liga in exceptional form, and while we haven’t seen THAT poolside “basketball” skill and juggling from the superstar goalkeeper, we have seen him produce clean sheet after clean sheet.
Thank to Courtois’ big saves, Real Madrid are in pole position to win La Liga heading into Thursday night’s huge matchup with Villarreal. Los Blancos are winners of nine in nine games, including a streak of five clean sheets. And while that streak was broken up by Granada after a midfield error, Courtois was the reason Real held onto all three points as he made several fantastic saves.