©picture alliance / NurPhoto | Jose Breton
Thibaut Courtois is going to invest in RC Genk, the Limburg club where he made his debut at the age of 16. The Belgian goalkeeper is thus returning to his old club, not as a player but as an investor through Nxtplay, his Madrid investment platform. The agreement was officially ratified during the General Assembly on Monday night.
The minority investment is through Nxtplay, founded by Courtois and business partner Gonzalo Vila. The platform brings together businessmen, athletes and celebrities to invest in sports, media and technology. After investing in French club Le Mans and Spanish third-tier club CD Extremadura, Genk is the Belgian club of which Vila spoke earlier.
Courtois invests in RC Genk: "This feels like coming home"
"Genk, and by extension Limburg, is my home. My career started here, so this club is a very important part of that," Courtois said at the press conference where the happy news was shared. "Of course this feels like coming home." The agreement is binding but does not take effect until the end of this year. For Genk, this commitment represents the first step in a broader capital increase path to 60 million euros.
As a matter of fact, Nxtplay does not want to adopt a multi-club ownership model and has no plans to invest in more Belgian or European clubs. Genk will be the absolute flagship. Courtois will become a shareholder, Vila will have a seat on the board of directors. "Of course, the focus now goes first to the World Cup with the Red Devils and after that I'm first and foremost a goalkeeper at Real Madrid," Courtois said in a comment to Sporza. "But that will not stop me from giving my opinion on how things are going."
Courtois is also taking on the role of ambassador to give young talent a push to choose Genk. "I always want to call a young player to convince him. RC Genk has a stable sporting and financial base and has a fantastic youth academy," he explained to Het Nieuwsblad.
"We want to create synergies between our NXTPLAY investments. This can range from technologies, data analytics to media. To create win-win situations," Courtois says about his investment.
©picture alliance / NurPhoto | Jose Breton