Thibaut Courtois has moved to clarify comments that Real Madrid training was a ‘higher level’ than that of former club Chelsea.
The Belgian international joined the European champions in a €35m deal last month and made the comments to Belgian outlet Het Belang van Limburg last week.
“It was not meant in that manner, I believe here it is a little faster,” Courtois told reporters, in quoted carried by Diario AS.
“To say that Madrid have a very high quality does not mean that Chelsea do not, and my decision to return to Madrid was to move closer to my children.
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“I am happy to see Chelsea making a strong start to the league and I know a lot of their fans will understand my situation, and I really loved playing there.
“It makes me sad that this has been misinterpreted and even when I did not show up at training – that was because I did not want to disrupt the squad.”