Koen Casteels will no longer play for the Belgian national team. The former Wolfsburg goalkeeper justifies the step with the imminent return of Thibaut Courtois.
Koen Casteels announced his decision to no longer play for the Red Devils in the podcast MidMid. The former goalkeeper of VfL Wolfsburg explains his retirement with the expected comeback of Thibaut Courtois. The Real Madrid keeper is getting “the red carpet” rolled out by the Belgian Football Association, which Casteels finds “very strange”.
Courtois has not played for Belgium since June 2023. The reason for this was a dispute with former national coach Domenico Tedesco. He had not named him, but Romelu Lukaku as captain for the European Championship qualifier against Austria, and thus as the representative of the absent Kevin De Bruyne.
“There are many players who think the same way I do”
Tedesco then put his faith in Casteels as the new number one, but was forced to resign in January. Successor Rudi Garcia recently made it clear to the French media that he wanted to go back to Courtois – a decision he came to after a personal meeting in Madrid, where he also discussed the possible return of Axel Witsel: “Even if we have quality in goal with Matz Sels and Koen Casteels, we count on Thibaut, who I consider the best goalkeeper in the world.”
It is not just Casteels who is said to be unhappy about this. “There are many players who think the same way I do,” said the goalkeeper, who is now playing for Al-Qadsiah in Saudi Arabia.
The new Belgian squad for the upcoming Nations League play-off duels against Ukraine (March 20 and 23) is to be named on Friday. It seems likely that Courtois will be included and Casteels left out.
