Kepa is officially at Real Madrid! He replaces the injured Courtois

Kepa Arrizabalaga is the new goalkeeper of Real Madrid. Los Blancos brought him in from Chelsea to replace the injured Thibaut Cortouis, who tore a cruciate ligament in his knee and will probably miss the whole season.

In the season before last, Thibaut Courtois was catching like a god and literally with a superhuman performance he picked up Real’s fourteenth earned trophy in the Champions League final against Liverpool.

He maintained his high standards last season as well and often worked his magic behind a sometimes slightly shaky Los Blancos defence. So without exaggeration, he was absolutely a key player for Real Madrid.

That’s why the news last week that he had torn the cruciate ligament in his knee came as quite a shock to the fans. At this point, there probably couldn’t have been a more important player to lose.

So the management had to hastily solve the situation, because currently there is only Andriy Lunin, who is counted on as a reliable number two, and young players.

David de Gea, Yassine Bono or Keylor Navas were offered, but Real Madrid eventually pointed to London. From Chelsea they brought in Spanish goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga, who showed his best self again after a dip in form during the spring.

“Kepa Arrizabalaga is a new Real Madrid player. The goalkeeper with international experience, who won the 2023 Nations League with the Spanish national team and has played more than 100 games in the Premier League, has joined our team,” Real Madrid said on its website.

“At 28, Kepa joins Real Madrid after five seasons at Chelsea, with whom he won 1 Champions League, 1 Club World Cup, 1 European Super Cup and 1 Europa League. Last season he received the award for the best stopper in the Premier League 2022-23. He has made 13 saves for Spain and won the European Under-19 Championship in the youth national team in 2012,” the Spanish giant added.

Kepa already has experience of La Liga, he is a product of Athletic Club, from where he went on two loan spells to Ponferradina and Real Valladolid, after which he was the Basque club’s number one for two years. In 2018, Chelsea made him the most expensive goalkeeper in the world.

Source: Real Madrid