His coach, Carlo Ancelotti, praises “his work ethic and discreet profile”, while his teammates have regained confidence in goal after Courtois’ injury
It’s not easy to be Kepa Arrizabalagathe Real Madrid goalkeeper who will make his debut tonight (9:00 p.m.) a derby against Atlético at the Metropolitano. That boy from Ondarroa that Marcelo Bielsa became his third goalkeeper at Athletic and traveled with the first team four times despite being a youth player. Before becoming a first team player he had to emigrate to Ponferradina and Valladolid looking for minutes.
Ernesto Valverde included him in the Lions squad in the 2016-17 season and in December 2017, Florentino Pérez closed his signing for Real Madrid. Everything was done until Zidane stopped his signing in a press conference in which he made it clear that his goalkeeper was Keylor Navas. It was the first time that Arrizabalaga crossed paths with the white club. Six months after the disagreement between Zizou and Pérez, Chelsea announced the signing of Kepa for 80 million euros. A huge outlay that weighed on him in his beginnings at Stamford Bridge.
Negative dynamics
Lampard did not have faith in him and he lost the title, which also caused him to disappear from the national team with Luis Enrique. Then the goalkeeper entered a negative dynamic, chaining setbacks: the breakup with his girlfriend, who had moved to London, his friend’s departure Alvaro Morata from Chelsea, the departure of Sergio Rico from Fulham, another of his supports in those first months. Added to this were his initial problems with English and going to live in the Chelsea neighborhood, while his teammates lived in Cobham, next to the club’s sports city.
Kepa focused on working, He improved his English and put himself in the hands of a psychologist. In September 2021, Chelsea Replaced Thomas Tuchel with Graham Potter and the English coach decided to give Kepa a chance, who quickly took over as a starter and became a defensive bulwark. By then he had started a relationship with what is now his wife and his integration into the team was already a fact. Furthermore, the ownership at Chelsea brought him back to the national team, so after three years in the tunnel he was seeing the light again.