“I am proud of how far I have come, he said. The difference is enormous for me but above all I see it as the fruit of my work since then.”
The place in the hierarchy has changed, as has the status. Coosemans was already part of the group of captains, he is now part of the closed circle of starters. Indisputable, even. Even to the point of being one of the main players when it comes to negotiating European bonuses. “It’s my thing and we managed to find a distribution key to keep everyone happy.”
Without him, Anderlecht would have conceded almost 7 more goals this season
Which Anderlecht player had a better start to the season than him? None. Only one man currently manages to look down on Coosemans: Davy Roef. Nothing to do with his past at RSCA, but the La Gantoise goalkeeper is the only one to offer a better numerical record than that of the Sporting goalkeeper.
Biased referees, suspicions of poisoning and hooliganism, there is always something happening in Spain: “Adapt to Real Madrid? Never!”
Coosemans literally saves the furniture according to Wyscout statistics. In addition to being one of the goalkeepers who concedes the least per match, he is the one who avoids the most goals: 0.68 per match. It doesn’t seem like much but it means that without Coosemans, Anderlecht would have already conceded almost seven more goals this season. And perhaps even more so when we remember his two big matches against Dinamo Minsk in the Europa League play-offs. “Anderlecht is no different from other big clubs, it needs a goalkeeper. I worked to be there when I had to take responsibility.”
That’s good, the RSCA needs him to shine on the pitch at the Reale Arena despite threats from Sergio Gomez who announced he wanted to score him a goal. “But he knows that we are here to bring the best possible result to Brussels. The victory against Ferencvaros allowed us to arrive here with a positive feeling.”
The goalkeeper’s performances have not gone unnoticed abroad. We are not talking here about a transfer but about the compliments of a certain Thibaut Courtois. “I didn’t send him a message but he contacted me recently because obviously he still follows the Belgian championship. It really surprised me.” Coosemans did not want to reveal the content of their discussion but it says a lot about his current change in status.
