At 34, Thibaut Courtois has been one of the world’s best goalkeepers for at least 15 years, and he continues to guard the Real Madrid goal as one of the club’s leading figures. Yet he is already looking towards the future, with an entrepreneurial instinct and every intention of reinventing himself in a football industry that is changing fast. As Forbes reports, the Belgian has launched his own investment platform, NXTPLAY, which has already acquired stakes in several European clubs. One of them is Genk, the club that launched Courtois into the professional game two decades ago, alongside Le Mans in France and Extremadura in Spain. And the Real Madrid goalkeeper has no intention of stopping there.
Courtois wants to put his name and his know-how to work — above all, the lessons he learned from his great coaches, from Ancelotti to Mourinho — and bring an increasing number of top players into these projects. That means more opportunities for shared ownership, more resources and more leadership to draw on as the clubs grow: a cycle Courtois hopes to build systematically through NXTPLAY, perhaps with an eye on the rapidly expanding American market and even beyond football, given that the startup also holds stakes in Signify, the Dutch lighting multinational, and gaming platform PlayVault.
Football remains the core business, though, and Courtois still sees the game at the centre of his life after retirement. His contract with Real Madrid expires in 2027 and should run for at least another season, but sooner or later the playing career will have to come to an end. A final spell in the United States would be plausible, particularly in light of his recent investments, before the move from the pitch to the boardroom. Like many of his peers, Thibaut is already thinking like an executive and trying to get ahead of the next stage, using NXTPLAY to turn the profile of a footballer moving into a new world into something more substantial, with a professional identity of its own. Almost like a high-level LinkedIn profile, with all the marks of a businessman: “Something that broadens the sphere of opportunities, increasing the confidence of potential investors who otherwise continue to see you as a simple footballer,” Courtois explains.
So far, the startup’s biggest commitment has been Genk in Belgium, but its entry into the lower divisions in France and Spain suggests that more clubs could follow. Courtois intends to keep expanding his portfolio across different markets and at different levels, with other teams in the frame. And yet the first love never really goes away. “I owe everything to this club,” Thibaut says. “Their wonderful academy allowed me to become the person and goalkeeper I am: we want to help Genk grow and rediscover itself as a major organisation, challenging Brugge’s domestic leadership above all. I have never played against Genk in my career. It has always been a dream of mine: to play in a Champions League match between Genk and Real Madrid would be the perfect ending to my career.” For now, there is still time, with a future to plan and shape.