Thibaut Courtois has said that Cristiano Ronaldo is irreplaceable, but other players must step up to fill the void left by him.
Real Madrid shot-stopper Thibaut Courtois has deemed the club’s leading scorer Cristiano Ronaldo as “irreplaceable” at the club and has told his teammates to find their feet to fill the huge void left by the Portuguese International.
The 33-year-old was reluctant to stay with Spain outfit post last summer and got his much-awaited move to Juventus for a fee of 100 million which made him the costliest player to wear the Old Lady shirt.
The former Real Madrid forward scored 450 goals in 436 games for the Los Blancos, winning two La Liga and four Champions League in the process. He won numerous trophies with Real Madrid but decided to move on because of a problem with the club president Florentino Perez.
The Belgian spoke to the media “Cristiano Ronaldo is irreplaceable, you cannot forget what he did,”
“But he is not here anymore, so it’s time for other players, like Bale did in the semi-finals [of the Club World Cup], to score the goals he [Ronaldo] used to score.
“If we are able to do so, it’ll be fine.”
The Los Blancos lifted the FIFA Club World Club last night and become the first club in the world to win it thrice on a trot, and has won it more than any other club in the history of the competition.
Thibaut Courtois left Chelsea to join the Los Blancos last summer and has featured 19 times for the club this term. He has not hit the top of the pile, which is mainly down to Real Madrid’s defense often letting him down with abundance space at the back to deal with.
On the other hand, he has put in great performances to save Santiago Solari’s side sometimes this season. It has been a mixed start, but his talent cannot be brought into the question at any time. Keylor Navas is considering himself unfortunate after doing so well for Santiago Bernabeu faithful in recent seasons as the number one custodian between the sticks.
There has been plenty of equivocal reactions from the fans about his career kick off at Real Madrid, but he has done well in recent weeks to drop those ponderers. Despite starting the season too poorly, they sit fourth in the League, eight points off the leaders Barcelona who have played an extra game. It has been an interesting season with Sevilla and Atletico Madrid breathing down the neck of the league leaders.
Having won the Club World Cup, the Los Blancos will be hoping to add another silverware in this season, as they still stay in the hunt for the La Liga, Champions League, and Copa Del Rey.
Real Madrid will now return to the La Liga action to play Villarreal away from home on Thursday. They will be looking to add another three points to compete with FC Barcelona for the title.
