Courtois, hero of the Champions League: his scandalous past and his romantic marriage proposal aboard a yacht

What Mandinka, or love. While in Barcelona we only talk about the separation of Piqué, one of the symbols of a club trying to recover the glory of other times, on the other hand the panorama is diametrically opposite. In the last hours the Belgian goalkeeper of Real Madrid, Thibaut Courtoishero of the Champions League 2022 with his saves, proposed to his girlfriend, the Israeli model michel gerzigwith a romantic marriage proposal.

The “Giraffe”, as they call it for its two meters high, sank her knee on the prow of a yacht anchored off the Amalfi Coast to cause tears of emotion from the blonde, famous for her presence on the European catwalks and for the countryside advertising, where she was recently seen with underwear models.

“Yes to all life by your side”, he wrote on Instagram, in a post also shared by Courtois on his social networks. The couple is enjoying their holidays in the Mediterranean and this Saturday they were at some friends’ wedding.

With the news of his marriage, at the age of 30, Courtois seems ready to put an end to an intimate life that has seen him protagonist on the portals of England and Spain, countries where he has spent most of his career. A personal “handbook” that also includes an awkward situation with his Belgian national team mate, the talented Manchester City creative, Kevin De Bruyne.

Quiet, shy, calm. This is how Thibaut was described in Madrid in 2011, when he left his country from Genk to play for Chelsea, although a few days later, at the request of Cholo Simeone, he arrived on loan at Atlético. While learning to speak Spanish, Courtois fell in love with it Marta Dominguez, waitress of the Gabana nightclub, one of the most famous in the Iberian capital. Together with her he had two children and ended up moving to England to return to Chelsea in 2014, although in the middle he went through a crisis that made the headlines.

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It all started to break down when Jennifer Sánchez, a Spanish TV host who posed nude for a magazine cover, appeared and claimed she was having an affair with the doorman. They reached out on Twitter after she, a fan of the mattress team, begged him to stay on the team. Courtois’ reaction was to speak to him via direct messages. “I knew he had a girlfriend, but he told me they were wrong and that they would leave him. He also excited me by telling me that I would be with him longer when they left him,” Jennifer said in the publication. Her decision to reveal Courtois’ secret came in 2014, when he saw the goalkeeper kiss Marta at the celebrations for being La Liga champion.

Despite the scandal, the couple with Marta remained in London, where their first child was born and some time later they were expecting a second child. But it was there that he had to face another traumatic situation, which ended by decreeing its end.

What happened? British tabloids revealed that Courtois was having another secret relationship, this time with a 19-year-old girl who worked as the family’s dog sitter. Marta decided to pack her bags and return to Madrid while she was eight months pregnant.

Unbelievable but true, that marital problem would end up causing Courtois to join Real Madrid. It is that the goalkeeper was forced to return to the Spanish capital and be close to his children. The relationship with Marta has never ceased to be pleasant and it can be seen in the presentation of the Belgian in the merengue team.

When everything seemed to calm down in Courtois’s busy life, another secret came to light, although he didn’t have much to do with the situation. Or if.

His partner De Bruyne published an autobiography in which he confessed that he was unfaithful to his girlfriend, Caroline Lijnen. What did the girl do? She told in an Instagram story that in retaliation for that deception she had lived a passionate night with Courtois. “Thibout gave me more in one night than Kevin in three years,” said the good Caroline, indifferent that on the date of the alleged revenge the doorman was having an affair with Marta.

Start over

Everything changed in Thibaut’s life, who ended his celibacy with the arrival of 24-year-old Israeli model Mishel Gerzig. They have been together for a year and he usually accompanies her to the different events she attends for professional reasons. At a recent fashion show, she cheered from the front row as she walked into the brand’s models. hunkemoller.

In Paris, after the consecration of Madrid, Mishel entered the Stad de France and posed next to the hero of the Champions League, capable of stopping 9 shots on goal with the same sagacity and sobriety with which he managed to escape unscathed from the conflicts of the his bedroom. And a week after raising Orejona with the merengue team, he proposed to the girl about him.

Hero of Champions 2022

With the glare of the final of the 2022 edition of the Champions League Viniciusgoal scorer title number 14 for Real Madrid. But both in Paris and in the previous epic series he had to overcome, the Meringue it had an angel in the bow: the Belgian Thibaut Courtois.

nine bailouts erected the archer who recently turned 30 as the most decisive player of the night in Saint Denis and the most applauded by the thousands of fans who came to France.

In the first half he shot at Sadio Mané who touched the post, when they were still 0-0, and then he avoided two face-to-face with Mohamed Salah, who fell desperately to the ground with the success of the Belgian.

Courtois was one of the first to go to thank the Real Madrid fans for their support and approached the stands where his own were, first raising his hands to his face in emotion, and then raising his arms to encourage. the public.

Paradoxically, Courtois became famous at Atlético de Madrid, then continued at Chelsea in England, and in 2018 he joined the White House, a team with which this season he was fundamental with his interventions to bring Orejona to the club for the 14th time Santiago Bernabeu.

Born in the Belgian city of Bree, Limburg, in 1992, it looked like his future I would have been to volleyball, as both of his parents, Thierry and Gitte, and his siblings, Valérie and Gaetan, were professional players of that sport. However, At the age of five, Thibaut wanted to be a footballer.

It started as a child left side in the local club of Bilzen, but when entering the Basso del Racing Genk He began training as an archer. In addition to the genetics inherited from his parents, he more than once recognized that he was one of the best in the world nails beach volleyballwith which it has developed the ability to be fast both from below and from above, despite its 1.99 meters in height.

He debuted at Racing Genk on April 19, 2009, but it was in the 2010-11 season when he signed his own first contract as a professional and became the owner. His team won the Scudetto and was recognized as the best goalkeeper in the competition.

At the request of Simeone

Chelsea, when he was only 19, signed him for nine million euros. But as Czech Petr Cech was under the sticks as a starter, Courtois was loaned to Atlético de Madrid led by Argentina’s Diego Pablo Simeone for three seasons.

In the red and white phase, in which he fell in love with Real Madrid as a city, he knew what it was like to win the Europa League, the European Super Cup, the Copa del Rey and the Spanish championship. In 2014 he played the Champions League final with the colchoneros. Who beat him? The real Madrid.

In addition, he won two Zamora awards for the goalkeeper with the lowest number of goals scored in the 2012-13 league, in which he received 29 in 37 games, and the next, with 24 in 37.

From Chelsea to Real Madrid

In the second half of 2014 he was recovered from José Mourinho’s Chelsea, where he soon won the titular job on Cech. With the ‘blues’ he won two championships, two English Cups and won the 2016-17 Premier Gold Glove.

But the city of Madrid kept pulling him, especially since his children Adriana and Nicolás lived there, the fruit of his relationship with the Spanish Marta Domínguez. And on 8 August 2018 his arrival at Real Madrid was confirmed, with what he saw his dream come true as a child.

In his room as a child he had a Bernabéu flag and an Iker Casillas shirt. “He was an example I saw as a child and how he played well at Real Madrid. Then I also looked at Van de Sar (Dutch goalkeeper). But when I faced Iker in 2011 it was incredible.”Courtois once mentioned on Real Madrid TV.

The Belgian signed with the whites first for six seasons and won the starting spot for the Costa Rican Keylor Navas. “I’ve never kissed a shield until today, when I feel like I’m where I want to be”were some of his first words as a Real Madrid player.

He has won three championships, a Club World Cup and a Spanish Super Cup. Now he can add an Orejona to his record, after having renewed his contract until 2026 as undisputed owner, as one of the pillars of Zinedine Zidane as then with Carlo Ancelotti.

“It is not easy to be a Real Madrid goalkeeper because there is the pressure to stop everything. Also because of the goalkeepers who were there before. In general they expect miracles from the whole team, especially at the Bernabéu, where the pressure to win and doing is good. But that’s also why Real Madrid is “commented.

On Saturday 28 May in Paris, he went back to enduring that pressure and, once again, Courtois more than respected to go down in history.