Thibault Courtois wants Jose Mourinho to give him a fair crack at replacing Petr Cech as Chelsea No 1 next season before agreeing to return. The Belgium international, who is on loan at Atletico Madrid, has enhanced his growing reputation as one of the best emerging goalkeepers in world football by being named La Ligas goalkeeper of 2012-13 on Monday night. Chelsea want Courtois to return to Stamford Bridge next season, but the 21-year-old is keen to get assurances over his first-team chance. Sportsmail understands there is a willingness from Courtois to stay with Chelsea next season but he fears they want him to be purely Cechs understudy. Courtois feels the decision of who should be the clubs first-choice goalkeeper should be based on current form and performances, not reputation, which he is worried will not be the case. Chelsea view Courtois as the clubs long-term No 1 but with Cech still only 31 there are no guarantees his first-team chances would be immediate if he returned next year. The Stamford Bridge club have offered Courtois a contract extension until 2019 but the keeper is currently unwilling to sign it. Courtois is settled in Spain and would much prefer to stay in Madrid, potentially on permanent basis, next season instead of sitting on the Blues bench. The Belgian still has two-and-half years left to run on his current Chelsea deal which puts the Blues in a position of strength for the time being. But the idea of a player, who in the current market could be worth in excess of £20million, running down his contract will not sit comfortably with the Blues hierarchy. After receiving his reward on Monday night, Courtois said: This is the most beautiful award Ive ever won in my career. In 2011 I was crowned as best goalkeeper in Belgium but this is really on another level. A huge honour. Spain has always had great goalkeepers. Casillas and Valdes are nominated for the FIFPro World XI, and Im not the only good goalkeeper in the Primera División. Im happy. This award has been voted by the managers in our League. Im still 21 and I can grow as a goalkeeper. On his future, he added: I dont want to think about it yet. I will decide my future only in a few months. -jla
Posted on: Wed, 04 Dec 2013 06:45:59 +0000