‘I might have made it outfield’, reveals Chelsea’s Courtois

Many amateur keepers find themselves stuck between the sticks after unwittingly sticking their hand up to go in goal once as a youngster – but Chelsea and Belgium stopper Thibaut Courtois admits he is no different.

The 24-year-old has already established himself as one of the world’s best goalkeepers in his short career so far, and is on course to win the Premier League’s golden glove this term for the Blues – having kept 13 clean sheets already.

But rewind the clock several years and the Chelsea gloveman was actually a talented full-back in his native Belgium, where he played for local side Bilzen.

And were it not for a goalkeeper shortage at Racing Genk, a club he joined when he was seven years old, Courtois believes his career path could have been very different.

“I was good as an outfield player,” he said.

“At the ages of seven, eight, nine and ten, there were two groups – an A group and a B group – and I was always in the A group, so I had quality to play.

“But we needed a goalkeeper for this tournament and, because I played volleyball when I was really young, I enjoyed diving around and making saves at that age.

“So when the manager asked me if I wanted to play in goal I said yes because I knew I would play every game then.

“This competitive thing was always inside me, even during stupid ping-pong games with my father. In the beginning I could never win, and then when I could win one set, it was already great.

“So it was always as if it was the final of an important game.”