THIBAUT COURTOIS: SOCCER’S CALENDAR NEEDS REFORM  

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Thibaut Courtois on Soccer’s Growing Calendar Crisis  

The relent­less demands of mod­ern soc­cer have prompt­ed Real Madrid goal­keep­er Thibaut Cour­tois to call for urgent changes. In an inter­view with CNN, the Bel­gian star crit­i­cized the packed cal­en­dar and its impact on play­ers, advo­cat­ing for an NBA-style off­sea­son to alle­vi­ate the phys­i­cal and men­tal toll.  

Cour­tois, who received the Play­er Career Award at the Globe Soc­cer Awards in Dubai, dis­missed the argu­ment that high salaries jus­ti­fy the relent­less sched­ule. “The excuse of ‘you earn a lot of mon­ey’ has to stop,” he said. “You can also earn mon­ey play­ing 10 few­er games. The prob­lem is the lack of rest.”  

The Cal­en­dar Con­ges­tion Cri­sis

The issue came to a head ear­li­er this year when soc­cer play­ers’ unions chal­lenged FIFA’s expand­ed 32-team Club World Cup, set to take place in the Unit­ed States next year. Crit­ics argue that this tour­na­ment, cou­pled with oth­er inter­na­tion­al com­pe­ti­tions, vio­lates play­ers’ rights to an annu­al break.  

While FIFA Pres­i­dent Gian­ni Infan­ti­no defend­ed the cal­en­dar, cit­ing the organization’s mis­sion to fund glob­al soc­cer devel­op­ment, Cour­tois expressed doubts about whether gov­ern­ing bod­ies are tru­ly lis­ten­ing to play­ers. “FIFPRO tries to pro­tect us, but oth­er orga­ni­za­tions don’t con­sid­er the toll on play­ers,” he said.  

Tak­ing Cues from the NBA

Cour­tois sug­gest­ed that soc­cer could learn from the NBA, which has an intense eight-month sched­ule but pro­vides play­ers with two months of guar­an­teed rest in the off­sea­son. “If play­ers had two months off in sum­mer, they could recov­er their bod­ies for one month and train for anoth­er,” he explained. “With­out rest, injuries pile up.”  

The Bel­gian also high­light­ed the strain on top play­ers like Jude Belling­ham and Dani Car­va­jal, who returned to Real Madrid just weeks after wrap­ping up gru­el­ing inter­na­tion­al sched­ules. “If you explain this to peo­ple in the NBA or NFL, they wouldn’t under­stand,” Cour­tois said.  

Inter­na­tion­al Fix­ture Over­load

With the intro­duc­tion of com­pe­ti­tions like the UEFA Nations League and the expan­sion of tour­na­ments such as the Euro­pean Cham­pi­onship and World Cup, inter­na­tion­al games are more fre­quent than ever. Cour­tois argued that this con­stant cycle leaves no room for squad rota­tion or exper­i­men­ta­tion. “Every game is so impor­tant, and it adds more pres­sure on top play­ers,” he not­ed.  

Although Cour­tois has stepped away from the Bel­gian nation­al team fol­low­ing a dis­pute, he expressed a desire to return and con­tribute in the future.  

Club vs. Coun­try and the Pur­suit of Tro­phies

Despite the chal­lenges, Cour­tois remains focused on suc­cess with Real Madrid. The revamped Cham­pi­ons League for­mat, which adds more fix­tures to the sched­ule, has earned his sup­port for cre­at­ing excit­ing, com­pet­i­tive matchups.  

“We want to win every­thing pos­si­ble, and that’s what is demand­ed of us at Real Madrid,” Cour­tois said.  

As soccer’s cal­en­dar con­tin­ues to expand, the call for reform grows loud­er. Will gov­ern­ing bod­ies and clubs pri­or­i­tize play­er wel­fare, or will the game’s grow­ing demands take prece­dence?  

Read the full sto­ry here: Thibaut Cour­tois urges soc­cer to use NBA as ref­er­ence point in cal­en­dar con­ges­tion cri­sis | CNN