Thibaut Courtois reveals how he would react if he saw Barcelona star Lamine Yamal at restaurant after El Clasico row with Real Madrid

Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois has revealed that he has no issues with Barcelona teenage sensation Lamine Yamal after El Clasico row.

The first Clasico of the 2025-26 campaign, which ended 2-1 in Real Madrid’s favor, saw several Merengues players go after Yamal following the final whistle after the youngster made inflammatory remarks about the Whites ahead of the match.

Los Blancos captain Dani Carvajal was the first to confront Yamal at full-time, before Courtois and Vinicius Junior got involved. The latter had to be held back from confronting the Barcelona star.

Recalling the incident during an interview with Cope, Courtois dismissed any ongoing tension between him and Yamal, saying he would exchange pleasantries with the Spaniard if they happened to meet in a restaurant. He insisted that Yamal’s pre-Clasico comments only fired him and his teammates up.

“For me, Lamine is a great player and will be a player who will mark an era at Barça, I think, but well, in the end he spoke in a certain way, he heated up the game a bit and obviously the press jumped on him,” Courtois said.

“When we're feeling really intense and full of adrenaline, sometimes you say things that you later regret, 'Well, that wasn't necessary.' But I think that's what a Clásico is like. Sometimes we need that atmosphere too, and I think that after last year when we lost four times, we also need that fire from an enemy again, and we have to go after them because even when they've won, they haven't shown us any respect.

“Carva or Huijsen are in the national team and I think there's zero problem with Lamine. It's something that stays on the field and there's nothing going on off it. If I see Lamine in a restaurant tomorrow, I'll say hello. I don't think there's any problem between Lamine and me.”

“We don’t like to lose against Barcelona” – When Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois highlighted the weight of El Clasico

The meeting between Barcelona and Real Madrid is arguably one of the most watched football matches in the world. The two teams have faced each other several times across different competitions in the history of the sport.

In 2024, Barcelona and Real Madrid played a pre-season El Clasico in New Jersey, and it was the Catalan club who ran out 2-1 winners. Despite the contest being a friendly match, Courtois revealed that Los Blancos do not like to lose against their archrivals even if it’s preseason. He said (via Managing Madrid):

“We play matches in these pre-seasons that are interesting for the fans and for the public that goes to the stadium. In the end, the stadiums fill up when Real Madrid plays. It’s obvious that we don’t like to lose against Barcelona. Even if it’s pre-season, you don’t want to lose. But in the end, when it counts is during the season, and as Carvajal said last season, when the time comes, we’ll see what happens. It has been a mixed match, combining young players with experienced ones in the first team, both for us and for them. That’s all.”

Barcelona and Real Madrid have played each other 262 times across competitions. Across those meetings, Los Blancos have 106 wins, two more than Barca’s 104.