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Speaking at the Santiago Bernabéu during the presentation of his documentary about his recovery from a serious knee injury, Thibaut Courtois did not mince words about a topic that he considers ignored.
In a subsequent interview with CNN Sports after receiving the Career Award at the Globe Soccer Awards in Dubai, Courtois explained the challenges posed by modern football’s overloaded calendar.
“We have to stop using the ‘you make a lot of money’ excuse. You can also earn money by playing 10 less games. It’s not that there are too many games… I feel that the problem is that we lack rest,” Courtois said.
The Belgian goalkeeper criticized the simplistic argument often used to dismiss players’ concerns, insisting that player welfare should take priority over financial gains or competitive expansion. “The easy phrase is that they earn too much money and that the teams play more tournaments… and they always appear in the headlines and that’s where the anger begins,” he added.
The NBA as a model
Courtois believes the NBA’s model of balancing a demanding season with substantial off-season rest could serve as a model for soccer.
“If you have two months off in the summer, like in the NBA, you can rest your body for a month and train for a month. People will be better prepared to face a total of nine months. “When you don’t rest, that’s when all the injuries accumulate,” he explained. “Jude and Dani played until July 14, then they trained with Madrid on August 1 and played in the European Super Cup on August 8. If you explain this to the people of America with the NBA and the NFL, they won’t understand. “
The imbalance, he suggested, is particularly pronounced for top players who compete on multiple fronts. “If you’re on a team that plays once a week, you don’t understand this scheduling problem because you have a game every Saturday and that’s how it is… but for us, the best players, it’s different.”
Players’ voices are often ignored
Courtois expressed frustration that players’ concerns are often overlooked, even though organizations like FIFPRO try to advocate for them.
“I don’t think anyone is listening to the players. “FIFPRO is trying to protect the players… but I don’t think other governing bodies are taking that into account,” he lamented. “I think the clubs want to help, but we all follow the rules and the schedule they give us.”
Courtois also shared a recent conversation with his teammate Fede Valverde. “The other day I was joking with Valverde and I told him: ‘Your next vacation will be in 2027.’ You know how crazy that sounds!
