Real Madrid goalkeeper Courtois spoke about his conflict with Belgium’s coach Tedesco in a series of documentaries released on the Prime Video platform.
Courtois first mentioned the departure of Roberto Martinez, who had coached the team for six years, due to their failure in the Qatar World Cup: “A lot happened after the Qatar World Cup, and there was a lot of controversy. Obviously, when the team’s performance is not ideal, it becomes harder for people to step into the stadium, and the relationship with the players is no longer the same. I told myself: we need to improve all this, and I’ve been looking for ideas to change the current situation with the new coach (Tedesco).”
“It all started before the match against Austria. De Bruyne was injured, and a few days later, Lukaku participated in training. I thought the coach would talk to me about his requirements for the team, but he didn’t talk to me in the end. He only spoke for two minutes before the training session and didn’t mention anything important. In short, I rarely felt the coach’s attention that week. It was a different week, a strange week, and I didn’t feel comfortable, so I had a premonition of what was going to happen.”
In the match against Austria, Courtois made his 100th appearance for Belgium. The player said: “Both Lukaku and I are the vice-captains of the team. I hoped to wear the captain’s armband in the match to recognize my work and time with the national team. But on the day of the match, he (Tedesco) announced that Lukaku would be the captain. After the match, Vercauteren (Belgium’s sports director) called me and talked to me. I told him how I felt, but he threatened me, saying that if I left the national team, he would tell the media everything.”
“I told him I didn’t know what good it would do for him to do this, and my thought at that time was that I didn’t want to continue. I was a bit offended by the attitude he decided to take. I felt that the trust was broken, and if that was the case, I had to leave. Maybe I was wrong, so I apologized to Vercauteren in December, but he still attacked me directly, lied a lot, and passed some things to the media, which made me even more angry. All of this created an atmosphere that no longer made me feel at home.”
However, Courtois still wished the Belgian team well: “I sincerely hope that the national team can continue to move forward and achieve good results again. When you realize that they don’t respect you, your vision no longer exists. It’s not about being the captain; they left me with the impression that they simply don’t care about me. I’m no longer happy in the Belgian team, so I think it’s best for me to quit and focus 100% on my club (Real Madrid).”