Chelsea reject first Thibaut Courtois bid from Real Madrid

London, June 18: Just before he plays his first match for Belgium in the World Cup, the transfer saga has started to loom over Thibaut Courtois.

Chelsea’s number one is heavily linked to a move away from this summer, with Real Madrid most likely to be his new suitors. However, a recent bid from the Champions League winners was rejected by Chelsea citing it to be exceptionally low.

Reportedly, Madrid offered a derisory €40mn bid for the Belgian, which is too low according to Chelsea. And this has irked Real Madrid to move their attention to Liverpool target Alisson Becker.

In his revelation season with AS Roma, Alisson has done enough to bench Manchester City star Ederson and start for Brazil in the World Cup. While Real Madrid are only willing to pay so much for Courtois, stakes are high for Alisson with Madrid ready to pump out €60mn for him. But even that moves seems to stall as AS Roma are willing to consider something in the range of €85mn for the Brazilian shot-stopper.

Real Madrid have a long-term interest in Courtois and the Belgian revealed last year that he expects to move back to Spain at some point in his career because of his family and kids being in the Spanish capital.

Courtois is reluctant to sign an extension on his current deal that runs out in 2019 summer. This means that if Madrid can survive one season with Keylor Navas, the Belgian could be on his way to the Bernabeu on a free transfer.

Madrid have had their woes with Keylor Navas and although he was the one crucial player in their third successive Champions League triumph.

It now seems to be end of the road at Bernabeu for the Costa Rican number one on goal. Navas has been part of all three squads of the historic Madrid side that retained the Champions League title in 2018 and become the only team to win three in a row.