When Thibaut Courtois arrived at Real Madrid in the summer, it pretty much meant the end of Kiko Casilla’s time with the club.
He stayed until the winter window and then moved to Leeds United, leaving Courtois to battle it out with Keylor Navas, and Luca Zidane to provide support.
On his return to the club, Zinedine Zidane renewed his preference for Navas, over anyone else, between the sticks, and then last weekend surprised everyone by starting Luca Zidane against Huesca.
That’s led to some suspicion that the 20 year old only got the chance because of who his father is, but Casilla has been quick to back-up his former Real Madrid colleague, and explain the goalkeeping coaching down the years has really benefited the Spanish club.
One of those coaches left a particularly good memory for Casilla, until he moved to Manchester United.
The Leeds United stopper told Marca: “What Madrid has is a very good line of goalkeeping coaches and good scouts. The first one I had was Manolo Amieiro, who was a great coach for the people of my time, and then Emilio Álvarez (now at Manchester United ) as well. I loved his way of working, and of course Luis Llopis, who has done a great job both in the quarry and in the first team, changed many concepts to goalkeepers, making them more participative in the game and being able to read defensive actions a lot better.”
Manchester United hired Emilio Álvarez to help David De Gea progress, and the coach has become a part of the close Spanish group at Old Trafford, which also includes Ander Herrera and Juan Mata.
