Courtois spoke to CNN about the tough schedule and admitted he wants an NBA-style rest period.
Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois gave an interview to CNN after winning the Globe Soccer Awards career award.
He spoke, among other things, about the overloaded calendar and the approach to the problem, with the players and their high salaries often being mentioned in particular.
What do you think of the current calendar?
“The excuse that we make a lot of money must end. You can also make money by playing ten fewer games. It's not so much the matches as the fact that I feel like we don't have much rest. FIFPRO tries to protect the players, but I don't think other institutions think about that.
This Club World Cup (next summer, with 32 teams and held between mid-June and mid-July in the United States) is something that needs to happen, but it is difficult to find the right way to do it. The clubs want to help, but here we all follow the rules and the calendar they give us. If you play one match a week you don't have this problem, but for the top players it's different. The other day I was joking about this with Fede Valverde, I said to him: “Your next holiday will be in 2027.” That sounds crazy!”
Would an NBA-style calendar be better?
“I think players have no problem playing non-stop for nine months with the right preparation and with 'load management' (as the NBA calls it). If you have two months off in the summer, as happens in the NBA, you can give your body a month of rest and then prepare it for another month.
People will then be better prepared to play for nine months straight. If you don't rest, injuries will happen. But this year it's the Club World Cup, next year the National Team World Cup, the next year something else… there is no rest for the players.
Bellingham and Carvajal (participants in the final of the last European Championship) played until July 14 and were training in Madrid on August 1; on the 8th they played the UEFA Super Cup (the Belgian numbers were a bit off: they returned on the 7th of August and played that match on the 14th). If you explain this to someone from America, where the NBA and NFL are… they wouldn't understand it.”
There are a greater number of important national team matches today than in the past…
“There are certainly more international competitions. For example, in the Nations League it is fun to play a small tournament where you can win a trophy and give the smaller teams a chance to qualify for the European Championship. I like that. The problem is that in September, October and November the best players have to play important matches where the coach cannot rotate and try new things. Now every match is important, including the World Cup qualifiers.”
What is the latest news about your situation with the Belgian national team?
“It has always been a source of pride to play for my country. The team has clearly moved on and I don't know what will happen in the next month or next year. Of course I hope to play again or have a good farewell. I would love to play at the next World Cup, but we'll see what happens. It's not that simple.”
Thoughts on the new format in the UEFA Champions League
“The new format is very similar to the format that our president, the Super League, has proposed and what they want to do with it. I think they made the right choice with this approach because there are a lot of exciting matches and you have to fight them out until the end, you don't know what will happen.”
Can Real Madrid win all seven trophies this season?
“We never prioritize just one thing; in the last two Champions Leagues we won, we also won LaLiga. This season I think anyone can beat anyone in the League, it's a tough competition and the same thing happens in the Champions League. We want to win as much as possible, that's what they ask of us at Real Madrid.”
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