By: EFE Posted Jun 21, 2023, 10:00 am EDT
The Belgium soccer team lives its first crisis in the era of Dominic Tedesco on the bench, after the goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois left the concentration when he learned that, in the absence of Kevin de Bruyne due to injury, the captain would not be him but the striker Romelu Lukaku.
“We are disappointed by his reaction,” the attacker Yannick Carrasco told public radio television RTBF after the victory of the Red Devils against Estonia by 0-3 in the framework of the qualification for the Eurocopa 2024.
Courtois, 31, did not show up on Sunday night at the Belgian team’s concentration hotel in Tubize (south of Brussels) and did not travel to Tallinn for Tuesday’s game with Estonia, apparently offended that the 30-year-old Lukaku had captained against Austria.
His place in goal in Tallinn was taken by 31-year-old Strasbourg goalkeeper Matz Sels.
Carrasco, an Atlético Madrid winger who inherited Lukaku’s bracelet when the striker was substituted in the 69th minute after scoring a brace against Estonia, criticized the attitude of the goalkeeper for his team and Real Madrid.
“In the end, he is part of the team, he is one of the three captains. A bracelet is just a detail. You have to show that you are a leader and a captain with your personality. He chose to leave. He had discomfort or not, we don’t know. But one of the reasons for his departure was also the bracelet”, said Carrasco.
Courtois has assured on social networks that his decision was due to having physical problems and has criticized Tedesco for airing the problem.
The goalkeeper’s attitude has bothered Belgium, where the press has charged against the goalkeeper, sometimes demanding sanctions and other times simply an apology.
“Good morning, San Tibú. How does your Holiness want his egg? ”, today headlines the newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws a column on the bracelet crisis.
The text points out that Courtois is “the best goalkeeper of all time” but stresses that “Leaving the national team and putting the national coach against the wall because they wouldn’t let you be captain against Austria, is unacceptable”, proof of an “inflated ego”.
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