It was the first name that came up when Thibaut Courtois’s injury was known and this Monday morning it has become official. Real Madrid have agreed with Chelsea on the loan of Kepa Arrizabalaga until the end of the season and he will be presented tomorrow (1:30 p.m.) at the Valdebebas.
Yesterday, the Basque goalkeeper was excluded from Chelsea’s squad for the first league match against Liverpool. Mauricio Pochettino himself confirmed that Kepa had been given permission to seek a new destination: “Kepa is something that has happened very quickly and the rumors are true,” said the Argentine. “He has permission to explore other options and we’ll see what happens in the next 24 or 48 hours,” he added.
Courtois suffered a rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee on Thursday during training, which meant that the white club had to go to the market to reinforce the position and sign competition for the Ukrainian Andriy Lunin.
And in this search they opted for Kepa, who arrives in the form of a loan to a Real Madrid for which he was able to sign in January 2018. His clause to leave Athletic Club was 20 million; a “market opportunity” that did not materialize, since the Frenchman Zinedine Zidane, coach at the time, insisted on his commitment to Keylor Navas. Six months later, Kepa joined Chelsea in exchange for 80 million euros.
He began as a starter, moved to the bench after the arrival of Édouard Mendy and in the second half of last season he regained his place. With the arrival of Argentine coach Mauricio Pochettino at Chelsea, Kepa started most of the pre-season games, but the signing of Robert Sánchez on August 5 changed his situation and he ended up joining Real Madrid despite the interest also from Bayern Munich.
Kepa accumulated 163 games defending the Chelsea goal, in which he conceded 175 goals and left his clean sheet on 59 occasions. In his five seasons at Chelsea he has won 1 Champions League, 1 Club World Cup, 1 European Super Cup and 1 Europa League. This year he has received the award for the best save in the Premier League for the 2022-2023 season.
In addition, he has been international with Spain 13 times and was part of the team, led by Luis de la Fuente, who won the League of Nations in June, being the substitute for Unai Simón.
