Beach volleyball is one of those modern Olympic sports that tends to draw sneers from traditionalists. Not so much a sport, they grumble, as a leisure pursuit, something for holidays rather than for honing elite athletes.
It would be wise not to mention that idea to Thibaut Courtois, perhaps the finest footballer in his position of his age. Courtois gained a significant portion of his skills set from leaping around in the sand.
Courtois is the Belgian goalkeeper whose childhood home had a sand volleyball court in the garden and whose outstanding performances over the past nine months have propelled Atletico Madrid to the top of Spain’s Primera Liga and into Tuesday’s semi-final of the Champions League, against Chelsea.
For many of his Atletico teammates, Chelsea felt like marginally the best alternative when the draw for the last four took place. They avoided a meeting with favourites and holders Bayern Munich, and a neighbourhood clash with Real Madrid, who this year emphatically defeated Atletico in the semis of the Copa del Rey.
For Courtois, though, Atleti versus Chelsea carried potential complications. He belongs to the London club and has done for the past three seasons, each of which has been spent on loan at Atletico.
Uefa, organiser of the Champions League, has declared unenforceable a clause that exists in the agreement between the clubs obliging Atletico to pay a supplementary fee to Chelsea if Courtois lines up against them.
So he will start on Tuesday and, if fit, at Stamford Bridge next Wednesday. If he maintains his standards thus far in the competition – Atletico have the competition’s meanest defence – Chelsea’s recruitment staff are in for two evenings of conflicting emotions.
On the one hand, they would see confirmation that their identifying Courtois, then 18, as a future star was wise; on the other, he may well become a decisive obstacle to their progress to a European Cup final.
Courtois has acknowledged the “special” circumstances around the tie for him. “Even though I’m at Atleti, Chelsea are my club too,” he told Fifa.com. “It’s better not to think about it too much and play like I always do, because if I start thinking, ‘Oh, I’d better be careful’, then I’ll end up playing poorly.
“I want to win trophies here and I’ll be an Atleti supporter for these two games, but at all other times I’m a Chelsea fan too.”
Where Courtois plays next season remains a moot point. Each of the past two summers, he has renewed his loan at Atletico because Chelsea, confident of the long-serving keeper Petr Cech’s continuing excellence, could not offer him first-team football each week. Atletico could, gladly, and, with Courtois inked in as No 1, have been building their most potent side for nearly 20 years.
Comparisons between Cech, who has shaken off the illness that prevented him playing in Saturday's 2-1 defeat to Sunderland, and Courtois are bound to be made over the ties. The Czech Republic custodian, 31, has been at Chelsea for a decade. Courtois is at precisely the age now that Cech was when Chelsea made one of their greatest investments in recruiting him from Rennes.
There are areas, besides his youth, where Courtois may have an edge. His sound distribution, especially with his left foot, has become an important asset in Atletico’s counter-attacking strategy.
At about 1.98 metres tall, he has a few centimetres even on the imposing Cech, terrific reach and startling mobility for such a tall man.
“His reactions are very quick and he’s very flexible,” said Jean-Marie Pfaff, who is regarded as Belgium’s greatest goalkeeper for his work with a successful national team of the 1980s and his long spell at Bayern Munich. “He has learnt a lot very quickly at Atletico.”
His speed of movement and reaction may owe something to the hours and hours spent on volleyball courts. Both Courtois’s parents, Thierry and Gitte, played volleyball – beach and indoor – to a high representative level and his sister, Valerie, is a Belgian international.
“Of course that helps with some goalkeeping techniques,” Pfaff said . “I must remember to start watching more young volleyball players when I scout for future keepers.”
Pfaff said he would be intrigued to see Courtois playing for his parent club in the future and coping “with the different style of English football, with more crosses to defend and different weather conditions”.
In the meantime, up against his owners, Courtois will keep his focus. Of that, Pfaff has no doubt. “He’s a composed keeper, he’ll concentrate on the task directly in front of him.”
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