Thibaut Courtois would probably still be a Chelsea player had his family lived in London and not Madrid his agent told the BBC yesterday. The Belgian, 26, moved to European champions Real Madrid on Wednesday for a reported 42 million euros. However, his agent Christophe Henrotay insisted that the Chelsea fans should not be angry and think of Courtois as being disloyal in seeking to move to Madrid.

"There has been a misunderstanding that he wanted to get a move for the wrong reasons, but he was pushing to go out of Chelsea because of his children," said Henrotay. "If the family were in London it would have been different. He would have stayed. There is no reason to leave Chelsea, he could have won trophies. Unfortunately, his kids are with the mother in Madrid."