Atlético Madrid wants to make the loan of Thibaut Courtois from Chelsea permanent.
Courtois, the 21-year-old Belgian goalkeeper, joined Chelsea from Genk in 2011 and has since spent three consecutive loan spells at Atlético.
President Enrique Cerezo has told TV Espana, in comments picked up by AS, that ideally his club would buy the 30 million euro-rated player outright this summer, and if that was not possible he would attempt to negotiate a fourth season-long loan with the Blues.
“Courtois is an Atletico player until the end of the season,” Cerezo said. “After that we will try and buy him, if Chelsea want that. If not we will look for a formula so that he stays at Atletico next year.”
A report surfaced earlier in the week that Courtois had already agreed to join Real Madrid when his Chelsea contract expires in 2016.
“I have already said it in three or four languages. I have a contract until June 31 with Atlético and then two more years with Chelsea," he said. "I want to continue [here], they [Atlético] want to stick with me, I do not think they [Chelsea] want to sell me. This was put into the media to destabilise. These things happen when you have an important game. We know it is not correct. We concentrate on our own things, today was an example."