“Competitions are the most fun there is. They are whining.”
Rafael van der Vaart has told Thibaut Courtois to ‘stop whining’ about the number of games in the football calendar.
The Dutchman has taken issue with the Real Madrid man’s comments in which he claimed that the UEFA Nations League third-placed play-off was simply a ‘money game’.
Belgium were beaten 2-1 by Italy in Sunday’s third-placed decider – with Courtois playing the full 90 minutes in goal.
The goalkeeper slammed UEFA for prioritising money over player welfare, but Van der Vaart was quick to downplay his claim.
“We play too many games. They don’t care about players, they just care about their pockets.”
Strong stuff from Thibaut Courtois 🗣 pic.twitter.com/et3k0bSA8F
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) October 11, 2021
“I think it’s silly,” Van der Vaart said during an appearance on Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS) as a pundit for Netherlands against Gibraltar, via Voetbalmagazine.
“You then have six months of vacation. You only play football, a club pays you a lot of money… of course the match schedule is very busy, but we have all been through that.
“Competitions are the most fun there is. They are whining.”
Speaking ahead of the third-placed play-off, Courtois likened players to ‘robots’ in the current system.
“This game is just a money game and we have to be honest about it,” he said. “We just play it because for UEFA, it’s extra money.”
He added: “In the end, top players will get injured and injured and injured. We are not robots. It’s just more and more games and less rest for us.
“Next year we have a World Cup in November, we have to play until the latter stages of June again. We will get injured. Nobody cares about the players any more. If we never say anything it will be always the same.”
Van der Vaart also suggested that a goalkeeper, of all players, cannot point to tiredness as “it’s standing there a bit.”
Related links:
- Thibaut Courtois accuses UEFA of prioritising money over player welfare
- Martin Ødegaard reveals he struggled to make friends at Real Madrid
- Florentino Perez hints Kylian Mbappe could sign for Real Madrid in January
