Player of the season nominees: Thibaut Courtois

With the season having ended, Sportskeeda decided to let its viewers rate the 30 best players of the season.

We will be shortlisting 30 of the best performers this term, and let you pick your winner.

What do you think? Have your say at the end of the article.

Belgium; The source of many a promising football stars of the near future and exciting prospects playing around the world. With the likes of Christian Benteke, Eden Hazard, Romelu Lukaku, Axel Witsel and Marouane Fellaini there are a lot of players in this national side that are almost destined to impress. Many think that Belgium could be the surprise package in next year’s World Cup and rightly so with a staunch defense, composed midfield and a promising attack, they could go a long way. And yet, no well educated football fan could think of the current Belgium side without mentioning one Thibaut Courtois.

A wonderful 2010-11 season with Genk that saw him concede only 32 goals over the course of 40 matches and keeping 14 clean sheets on the way, brought him to notice of English giants Chelsea FC. £8 million later, he was a Chelsea prospect. He has since been loaned to Atletico Madrid twice.

When Courtois was sent to Atletico in the 2011-12 season he was the Madrid club’s replacement for United bound David De Gea. After having a fantastic first season and winning the Europa League along the way, Chelsea decided that with Petr Cech still going strong, it would be prudent to loan the young keeper back to Atletico.

When he arrived in the Spanish capital for the second time, Thibaut was already very popular among both the fans and the players and returning to a coach who’s faith he had won and who admires him greatly. To begin the season then Thibaut Courtois was his usual splendid self for Atletico in goal. Conceding 11 goals in the first 3 months, it was November onward that Courtois really showed his potential. In what is arguably the most technical league of all, the young Belgian outshone all others with a total of 20 clean sheets in 37 league games. This young Belgian was the driving force of a staunch Spanish defense coming to his side’s rescue numerous times over the course of the season. These 20 clean sheets are also a club record for Atletico and to have come from someone as young as him, is all the more impressive.

Although he did not feature in the Europa league for Atletico (Simeone chose to give Sergio Asenjo a chance to prove his worth), he was the firm choice for both the Spanish La Liga and the Copa del Rey. 23 clean sheets in a season of 42 games is a stat that any keeper in the world would be proud of; let alone a young on-loan keeper who is nowhere close to his prime years.

His best league performance was probably at Sevilla, where he pulled out a couple of brilliant reaction saves and commanded his box perfectly in a 1-0 victory. A great feature of his is that he stands his ground comfortably and acts as a shot stopper for open plays but still possesses the confidence to come off his line to take command of the ball during set pieces.

A keeper with fantastic reflexes and great concentration, he has shown he is equally comfortable with saving long range scorchers as he is with close range thumps toward his goal. Possessing fantastic agility for someone who is as big as he is, Courtois has learnt to make perfect use of his almost comical reach to protect his goal.

Thibaut was the driving force (along with a certain Radamel Falcao) that propelled Atletico Madrid into second place in the league early on before falling slightly behind pace with Real Madrid and finishing third securing Champions League qualification in the process. Thibaut also won the prestigious Zamora award for being the best keeper in La Liga, making him the youngest player to do so.

In the finals of the Copa del Rey against local rivals and Spanish giants Real Madrid, Courtois was arguably the best player on the field. Conceding one goal from a fantastic header by Cristiano Ronaldo following a corner, the young keeper did very little wrong after that. Comfortably holding his own over the course of 90 minutes and pulling out a great save from Ronaldo’s low drive towards the end, he presented Atletico the opportunity to win it in extra time. His best save of the match though came from a close range Gonzalo Higuain shot following a Real Madrid counter attack, quickly closing the angle down and parrying the ball out of danger after a magnificent reflex save. His heroics also earned him the man of the match for the finals.

Courtois was definitely the most impressive keeper in Spain and probably the most impressive in Europe with an exception of seasoned veterans like Manuel Neuer or Gianliugi Buffon, etc. Very calm, composed and level headed, Courtois also knows that he doesn’t need to rush Chelsea into making a decision with his permanent future. He knows his time will come and he has handled all the media attention and transfer gossip almost as well as he has kept the Atletico goal.

Chelsea are probably going to loan him back out and another Atletico loan would surely make sense as they have also secured Champions League qualification this time around.

Thibaut Courtois is probably one of the best keepers in Europe and would walk straight into the starting eleven of most European clubs barring a handful, one of which are Chelsea. Although, if his development is going to continue at this pace, he may well be ready to challenge Cech for the No. 1 shirt at Chelsea as early as next season. One of the best keepers in Europe and definitely the most promising young goalkeeper in the top 5 leagues, Courtois has had a truly memorable season in terms of both performance and development.

Click here to view the rest of the Player of the Season nominees