Thibaut Courtois has spent two decades doing what other people told him to do. Show up, train, stop the ball, win. Two Champions League medals later, he's decided that's not enough. NXTPLAY, the investment platform he co-founded with Gonzalo Vila, is his answer to the question most footballers never bother asking: what do I actually want to build?
The platform already holds stakes in three football clubs — KRC Genk, Le Mans FC, and CD Extremadura — alongside a lighting and fan-experience partnership with Signify and a share in gaming platform PlayVault. That's a serious portfolio for a company that launched earlier this year, and it signals that Courtois isn't doing the usual footballer thing of slapping his name on a restaurant and calling it a business venture.
Going back to Genk
The most personally loaded of the three club investments is Genk. Courtois joined the Belgian club at eight years old, and he's not shy about what they mean to him. "I owe everything to them," he said at the World Football Summit in Madrid, where he and Vila presented NXTPLAY to the industry.
That loyalty has a competitive edge to it. He pointed directly at Club Brugge as the benchmark — their investment levels, their stadium expansion — and framed Genk's growth as a challenge worth taking seriously. For anyone tracking Belgian football odds and league dynamics, a better-funded Genk with a serious ownership group behind it changes the competitive picture at the top of the Pro League.
The academy pipeline is already elite. Since Courtois left for Chelsea, Genk have sold Mike Penders to Chelsea, Lucca Brughmans to Liverpool, and Senne Lammens to Manchester United. That's not luck. That's a production line, and Courtois wants to protect and extend it.
The bigger picture: US markets, esports, and what comes after playing
NXTPLAY's ambitions don't stop at European club football. Courtois has his eye on the US sports market — which, as franchise valuations keep climbing, is a reasonable place to be looking. The PlayVault stake reflects a similar instinct. He started streaming during the pandemic, understands the audience, and wants NXTPLAY's athletes embedded directly in the platform. He floated a specific target: a slot on the Formula 1 esports grid.
As for his own future, coaching a first team doesn't appeal. "You would get old really fast with all the players," he said. Development work draws him more — specifically the idea of building an academy, perhaps within Real Madrid's structure. "Developing a Thibaut Courtois instead of buying one" is how he put it.
He's 33 and says he wants five or six more years on the pitch. NXTPLAY's five-year plan is to raise a dedicated fund and grow into a genuine investment vehicle across sport and media. The dream finish line? A Genk versus Real Madrid Champions League match. It hasn't happened yet. Given the trajectory of both projects, he's clearly trying to engineer the conditions that might make it possible.
