When perhaps he least thought about it, in the final stretch of his career and having already signed a contract with a Second Division club in Saudi Arabia (will play in Primera next season), The opportunity of a lifetime has come to Koen Casteels (Bonheiden, Belgium; 1992). Whether due to a technical decision, physical condition or the bad relationship that Tedesco and Courtois are rumored to have, the reality is that this Monday Casteels will be Belgium’s starting goalkeeper in the Euro Cup.
“I’m not afraid to compare myself to him. I’m not Thibaut, I’m Koen. I’m not going to do anything different, I’m going to prepare as always. It has usually worked for me”, he explained in a press conference that he became tense as soon as he started. To the second question about Courtois, the goalkeeper looked at the press officer of the Belgian team and he intervened: “The debate is closed”.
For Casteels, it will be impossible not to remember the eleven years he has been in the shadow of the Madrid goalkeeper. The current starting goalkeeper was called up for the first time in a national team match in 2013.when a young Courtois, at Atlético de Madrid, was already in goal. It took seven years and thirty-six! games on the bench (when Courtois was not there, Mignolet was there) so that he could play a game. And since then, he has only started ten games. Not even with Tedesco, in office since 2023, has he been a fixture: he has played six games out of a possible fourteen. But now it’s his time.
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