Opinion: Thibaut Courtois is now the best goalkeeper in the world after stellar run of form at Real Madrid

The premise of who is the best goalkeeper in the world is perhaps more delicate than any other position in the sport. Such is the margin of error for goalkeepers that one week they can look like gods and the next they can look like the friend who always gets stuck in goal at 5-a-side.

Even goalkeeper statistics can be wildly misleading and it is only recently that it has been possible to quantify them effectively. For example, look at clean sheets. A goalkeeper at a top club is more likely to keep clean sheets than one at a lower club, that doesn’t always mean the keeper at a top club is better. Number of saves can skew in the opposite direction.

Plus now top-level keepers are expected to be wizards with the ball at their feet and some managers may be willing to sacrifice a little bit of goalkeeping quality for a player who can start counter-attacks effectively.

So how do we quantify the best goalkeeper in the world? It feels like you need a blend of the following traits: excellent shot-stopper, commanding when coming for crosses and through balls, strong distribution, good communicator, consistency and big-game mentality. The last one is a bit ambiguous but there have been plenty of keepers over the years who haven’t shown up in the crucial moments for their teams. The best will be there when the score is 1-0 and they haven’t done anything for 80 minutes and suddenly they have to pull a big save out of the hat.

And in this author’s humble opinion the very best goalkeeper in the world right now is Real Madrid’s Thibaut Courtois.

The headlines went to his stunning penalty save against Athletic Club in the Spanish Supercopa on Sunday evening and rightly so, it was a tremendous stop and when you watch the slow-motion you can actually see Courtois’ eyes watch the ball go onto his foot, an impressive feat.

After the match both Aitor Elizegi and Florentino Perez (presidents of Athletic and Real respectively) hailed Courtois as the best in the world and it’s hard not to agree. Over the past couple of seasons Courtois has quietly grown into what he was always supposed to be: the best in the world. Those were the levels set out for him when was breaking through at Genk all those years ago. He briefly flirted with that status at Atletico Madrid and at various stages at Chelsea but never consistently. In truth, after a horrendous first season in Spain it looked as if he was going to be most remembered for the less than magnanimous manner in which he worked his way out of Chelsea.

But now? Now when you talk about Courtois you are talking about the cream of the crop in terms of goalkeepers right now. More so than ever in his career Courtois looks unbeatable. He has added a touch of bulk to his impressive frame and he looks like a true monster in goal. He’s coming out confidently and is an imposing figure to any opposing striker. Despite some occasional miscommunication (hardly surprising when both of his central defenders change in one off-season) there has been a degree of calmness about the Real defence over the past 18 months or so.

And that wasn’t always the case at Real. At one stage in Courtois’ early days in white the Real defence was a bit of a shambles. After a tough last season in London many wondered whether he would ever get back to his best, let alone take the next step.

The way he has bounced back has been admirable. The errors that had crept into his game are gone, those wrists that were flapping as balls went through them? Now rock-hard. Even his distribution has taken a huge leap forward. Gone are the days of the ball going straight out of play to huge roars from opposition fans. Now he is even dictating the play a bit and has developed a sneaky nice connection with Karim Benzema and Vinicius Jr. Is he as good as someone like Ederson or Manuel Neuer with the ball at his feet? Not even close. But that’s not the point here. Courtois has put together an all-round game that cannot be matched.

We’ve watched his rivals like Neuer and Jan Oblak lose some of that consistency that made them so feared. Neither Ederson nor Alisson inspire the same level of confidence and Marc-Andre ter Stegen is not the same player after his injury. Edouard Mendy has been excellent since joining Chelsea but he has struggled a bit before going to the Africa Cup of Nations as the defence in front of him began to look a little less assured. If you want an under the radar contender for this crown, on form alone, then Wolves stopper Jose Sa might be your man, even if he probably doesn’t have the same level of ability as Courtois.

The encouraging thing for Real is that Courtois will be just 30 at the end of the season. They could have another five years of this, if not a lot longer.

And ultimately that is the real point of an article like this. Best in the world is a relatively nonsensical concept that is only really used by people to yell at each other on the internet. If you want to take one thing away from an article then let it be this. There are some goalkeepers out there who are doing some truly remarkable things when they are being protected less than ever. It used to be said of goalkeepers that you would never notice a good one. It’s time to stop that. Let’s start noticing the great ones and right now that starts with Courtois.