THIBAUT COURTOIS was reportedly given the cold shoulder by Keylor Navas following his 2019 summer arrival at Real Madrid.
And reports in France claim the duo rarely spoke beyond greetings at training sessions before the Costa Rican keeper’s exit for Paris-Saint Germain.
Thibaut Courtois could be set to face his former team-mate rival Keylor Navas when Madrid play PSGCredit: Getty
Courtois, 29, joined Madrid from Chelsea on a six-year deal thought to be worth up to £38million in August 2018.
His headline-grabbing move came just over a year before Navas left for Ligue One juggernauts Paris-Saint Germain.
And the pair could be set for a reunion with their teams facing off in the Champions League on Wednesday night.
Courtois is thought to have had a tricky start to life at the Bernabeu with him rivalling Navas, 35, for a starting spot between the sticks.
In the 2018-19 season, the duo went head-to-head for a place in former Madrid boss’ Zinedine Zidane’s first 11 prior to the Costa Rican’s move to France’s top-flight.
However French Sports L’Equipe claim Navas never wished to leave the LaLiga outfit.
And the newspaper reports the player, who has 103 senior international caps, feels he was pushed out by club chiefs.
Courtois’s relationship with his former colleague is thought to have been in stark contrast to the warm partnership he had with Petr Cech at Chelsea.
The Belgian spent seven years at with the Blues where he kept 58 clean sheets in 154 appearances between July 2011 and August 2018.
And in an October 2020 interview with French newspaper Le Derniere Heure, Courtois’s father Thierry said: “Petr received him very well (at Chelsea).
“He was the first one to come to receive him in his first training, he always gave him advice and helped him to integrate.
“He was a great team-mate who he could always count on. The same cannot be said for Keylor.
“His integration was not easy because Keylor was always there, there was a difficult internal competitiveness.
“Also external, with the journalists, who were in favour of Keylor. Once he went to PSG, everything was easier.”
The chances of an uneasy reunion on the pitch when Real face PSG look slim though, with Gianluigi Donnarumma having played for the French side in the first leg, which they won 1-0.
Navas is facing competition to start for PSG against Madrid with Gianluigi Donnarumma also in contentionCredit: Getty
