Real Madrid were confirmed as Champions of Spain last weekend with four games to spare (thanks to Barcelona’s defeat to Girona), and they celebrated that yesterday with an emphatic 4-0 win over relegation-bound Granada.
Between the sticks was Thibaut Courtois, just as the previous weekend, having now recovered from his ACL tear and subsequent setback with his meniscus. In fact, he’s expected to start the Champions League final in a few weeks, against Borussia Dortmund.
With Courtois back, Andriy Lunin and Kepa Arrizabalaga served as backups in the matchday squad — the silly trend of naming two goalkeepers to the bench is slowly spreading — and unfortunately that does not bode well for the Chelsea loanee’s future there.
According to Diario AS, Kepa “for sure will not continue” with Real beyond this season, and will be heading back to Chelsea once the season’s over. That’s not exactly a surprise given the way the season’s turned out. Kepa has started just three league games since December. He had quickly established himself as the number-one after he joined, but an injury in November ruled him out for a couple weeks, and he would never recovering his spot from that point.
The 29-year-old most expensive goalkeeper ever (still!) will have one more year left on his Chelsea contract. Presumably he’s not got a spot with us either, so hopefully some sort of amicable solution can be found in the summer for his next move.
