Courtois doesn't hold back: "The Ballon d'Or has to go to Mbappe"

While his Belgium teammates prepare for the Nations League, Thibaut Courtois stayed behind in Madrid. He arranged it with his federation and used the days off at Valdebebas to talk about a bit of everything on Onda Cero. And when it was his turn to weigh in on who deserves the next Ballon d'Or, he didn't mince words.

"It has to go to Mbappe. Everyone is blown away by his speed, by his goals," said the Real Madrid goalkeeper, making it clear that for him his French teammate is the top candidate for the award that will be handed out this October 2026.

Courtois didn't stop there. He knows Mbappe's biggest rival in that race is Lamine Yamal, so he went after the argument without naming him directly: "The Ballon d'Or has to go to the best player, not the one who's won the most. By that logic, Carvajal should have won it two years ago." It was an elegant way of saying that team trophies shouldn't carry as much weight as individual performance.

There was also room for praise outside the list of 30 nominees: Raphinha, who doesn't appear among the candidates but is, for now, LaLiga's top scorer with 12 goals. "I really like Raphinha, he's very important for his team, he scores a lot of goals, maybe he doesn't get the recognition he deserves. We'll have to stop him in about a month," the goalkeeper admitted, already looking ahead to the upcoming league clash against Barcelona.

Refereeing, once again at the center of the conversation

With the Madrid derby still fresh, Courtois was asked about refereeing in Spain's top flight. And there he decided not to fully sign on to Jose Mourinho's talk of some kind of conspiracy: "I don't think there's some hidden hand or anything like that, I'm not that suspicious." But he didn't hold back either when it came to pointing out decisions that don't add up for him: "There are things you see called in other games that don't get called for us, if anything it's the opposite, calls go against us and nothing goes our way."

The Belgian dug into memory to illustrate it: "The year of COVID when we lost the league there were four handballs... Atletico gets one sent to VAR, then we get a penalty overturned that was a penalty for Sevilla. There are things where you just think... I don't understand, they come explain things to us and a week later they do the opposite."

Where he was blunt, without nuance or hedging, was when discussing the case that has kept Spanish soccer on edge for a long time: Barcelona's payments to Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira.

Everyone is waiting for the verdict on the 'Negreira case,' it's something seriousThibaut Courtois

Between the Ballon d'Or, praise for rivals and refereeing, Courtois made it clear he has no problem sharing his opinion on whatever he's asked, even if it comes during a quiet stretch without a Belgium call-up.