Keylor Navas has lamented the situation he currently finds himself in at Real Madrid.
The 31-year-old Costa Rican goalkeeper began this season as Los Blancos’ number one but he’s since been usurped by Thibaut Courtois.
Unlucky Navas? Five things you need to know…
- Navas joined Real Madrid from Levante after impressing with Costa Rica at the 2014 World Cup.
- He’d feature across six league matches as manager Carlo Ancelotti would use him as Iker Casillas’ understudy.
- From the 2015/16 season onwards, Navas was Real’s undisputed number one playing an instrumental role in the club winning three consecutive European Cups under Zinedine Zidane.
- To date, Navas has featured across 148 matches in the process keeping 48 clean sheets whilst conceding 145.
- So far this season he’s made two appearances in La Liga and three in the Champions League.
Navas initially joined the Spanish powerhouse from Levante following an impressive showing at the 2014 World Cup as Costa Rica reached the quarterfinals only to be eliminated by the Netherlands.
His inaugural season at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium saw him being nominally utilised as the understudy of club legend Iker Casillas, but when the 2010 World Cup winner left for pastures new, Navas inherited his spot.
It was a position he maintained, despite persistent rumours linking the club with David de Gea, until this season when Real parted with £35 million to acquire the services of Courtois from Chelsea. To say the Belgian has disappointed is perhaps an understatement, a sentiment reflected by the man he replaced.
“I went from winning three consecutive Champions Leagues to not playing,” Navas told ‘El Chiringuito (via Marca).
A right to feel aggrieved?
There’s an argument that Navas is underrated. He’s never in the conversation of the world’s best goalkeepers, but to keep for a club like Real Madrid, where manager Santiago Solari says they live in a “permanent crisis”, you need to strong mentality.
Real’s previous managers have trusted Navas, notably three-time European Cup-winning coach Zinedine Zidane, and it’s fair to say he’s not let them down. The constant speculation linking the club with David de Gea of Manchester United must not have made his job easier, but you can hardly tell, and he’s only performed with great dignity.
Navas has featured once under the aforementioned Solari, a 4-0 Copa del Rey win over UD Melilla, which stretched his total appearances for Los Blancos to 148. Across those outings, he has kept 48 clean sheets (amounting to 32.4% of the games he’s been involved) whilst conceding 145 goals (or once every 92.7 minutes).
The Costa Rican was instrumental in Real’s three consecutive Champions League triumphs as well as lifting their last La Liga title in 2017.
£7.9m? What a bargain.
QUIZ: Can you name Real Madrid’s top 20 most expensive signings?
Given such a small fee, you will not find Navas in here!
Let us know in the comments below or via Twitter (@Squawka).
The post Keylor Navas: Three Champions League titles has put me on the bench appeared first on Squawka News.
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