Real Madrid Goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois Wants To Own Sports Teams, Not Just Play For Them

A goal to bring in more elite athletes

Most soccer players monetize fame through sponsorship deals with brands, ambassadorial roles, or even the occasional restaurant with their name on it. Yet part of NXTPLAY’s mission is to bring in more elite athletes to join the group. “Some are more interested in it, some share a vision, and sometimes you need to speak to an entourage, but often they see an opportunity to see what you are doing,” Courtois told me in an interview after his panel participation at the Summit.

“Others have brand deals and are less worried about investments, but eventually doing what I do I think I will create more interest when they see that what they do is good and that they can trust me with it,” he explains. “Being on LinkedIn, involved in NXTPLAY, I feel like there are more opportunities coming. They see you also as a businessman, maybe they trust me more than a usual footballer.”

Rather than going down that road, Courtois has worked with Vila and NXTPLAY to build a company that takes ownership positions. It’s not an entirely different proposition to what he does as a player. “One big thing is the ambition to do things well, and the work ethic,” he says. “As a professional footballer, you want to do things well and grow. In some deals you can share your vision more clearly, because I’ve been in this world for 20 years, and in other things I can learn.”

He has also worked alongside some of the sport’s fiercest leaders, both on the field and on the touchline, and believes that those transferable skills have been crucial to what he can achieve in the business world. “Leadership is something important, the way to delegate and surround yourself with people who understand,” he says, citing Gonzalo Vila and the wider team NXTPLAY has assembled. He credits two coaches in particular for shaping how he thinks about building that group. “Learning from people like Ancelotti and Mourinho, who are very different but very good leaders and know how to build a team, that’s our goal, to build a dream team.”

Going home to Genk

Of NXTPLAY’s three football holdings, KRC Genk, Le Mans FC, and CD Extremadura, only one can claim to be the club that produced Courtois himself. He does not pretend the Genk investment carried the same weight as the others, having come through the ranks at the club having joined them at the age of eight.

“It was an amazing feeling,” he says of signing the deal. “I owe everything to them, and the great youth academy which helped me grow into the person and goalkeeper I am today.”

That academy has kept producing goalkeepers long after Courtois left it for Chelsea a decade ago. Genk has since sold Mike Penders to Chelsea, Lucca Brughmans to Liverpool, and Senne Lammens to Manchester United, a production line Courtois calls a source of pride rather than nostalgia. That is at the heart of his ambition with Genk, saying, “we want to help companies to grow and become big companies, inside of technology or media, and football teams like Genk to help them become the main players in the Belgian league, we look at Club Brugge as the team to beat with their investment, stadium expansion, but we believe we can compete”.

He also revealed a personal ambition. “My dream was always to play against Genk. It’s never happened,” he says, recalling a near-miss in the 2012 Europa League when the draw kept his Atlético Madrid side apart from them. “A Genk versus Real Madrid Champions League game would be a dream way for me to finish my career.”

Expanding beyond soccer and beyond Europe

NXTPLAY’s portfolio so far is European, but Courtois says a long-term dream has him watching the United States market, pointing to the scale of recent franchise valuations as evidence of where sport is heading. “The size of sports teams in the U.S. is huge,” he says. “You can see they keep growing, and the U.S. sports market is growing. The love I have for those sports makes a great connection. We want to dream big, but it’s always a step at a time.”

The platform’s move into gaming, through its stake in PlayVault, reflects a similar instinct, one Courtois traces back to his own experience streaming during the pandemic. “It’s huge,” he says of esports’ potential. “Everyone can play or follow streams on their phone, it’s a way of connecting.” He wants NXTPLAY’s athletes integrated into the platform directly and name checks a specific ambition: joining the Formula 1 esports grid. “A thirteen or fourteen year old kid with a passion for motorsport can find friends, a place to belong, and fight for a dream. Why can’t it end up being a real race car?”

What comes next

Courtois is not ready to say what NXTPLAY looks like once he stops playing, only that he expects to still be busy combining his love for football and business. “I haven’t decided yet,” he says. Coaching a first team holds little appeal to him despite holding UEFA’s A and B licenses. “I’m not sure I would want to be a coach of a first team, you would get old really fast with all the players.”

He is drawn instead to development work, pointing to Genk’s academy as a model. “Maybe working in the goalkeeping department at Real Madrid, establishing a top academy, developing a Thibaut Courtois instead of buying one.” For now, though, that remains a future project, as he admits, “I still want to play five or six more years.”

The five-year plan for NXTPLAY itself is more concrete, if still early. “We want to grow into an important investment vehicle in the world of sport and media,” Courtois says, adding that raising a dedicated fund is the next step to reach new markets.