Courtois: Goalkeepers are much more important than people think

The 30-year-old

who recently finished seventh in the Ballon d'Or rankings and won the best goalkeeper of the year award believes goalkeepers still do not receive the recognition they deserve.

Courtois has told L’Equipe:

"Last year, if we won the Champions League it wasn't just thanks to Vinicius, Valverde, Benzema, or Rodrygo. It was also thanks to Courtois."

He added:

"The modern goalkeeper no longer only saves goals. Here in Madrid I also have to start the plays, it is I who with the first pass will decide how we are going to mount the attack or how we are going to get out of the rival's pressure.

"Today you are almost a playmaker, goalkeepers are much more important than you think."

Courtois won La Liga and the Champions League with

. He kept five clean sheets in 13 Champions League matches and won the man of the match award in the final against Liverpool. The Belgian goalkeeper claims that people still overlook the importance of goalkeepers.

He said:

”Without a good goalkeeper you don't win a trophy. And in football awards, sometimes we forget that, it is often written in big letters (in the newspapers) when it is a goalkeeper who makes a mistake. As soon as he makes a small mistake, they kill him and say the game was lost because of him.

"They don’t remember that the striker may have missed five or six easy chances before it."

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