For a while at Real Madrid it seemed he was turning into 'Calamity Courtois', now he is on the brink of toppling Jan Oblak's four-year reign as Spain's best goalkeeper, and breaking a 23-year clean sheet record at Real Madrid.
With the exception of Segio Ramos and Karim Benzema, Thibaut Courtois is doing more than anyone to win La Liga for Real Madrid. He has kept 17 cleans sheets this season and if he manages two more in the last three games he will equal the record set by Paco Buyo in the 1986-87 season of 19.
It will perhaps be overcoming Oblak that will give him even more satisfaction. The Zamora prize is Marca's coveted award to the keeper who has let in the fewest goals. Named after legendary keeper Ricardo Zamora who kept goal for Madrid and Barcelona in the 1920s and 30s the award was inaugurated in 1959.
Oblak has dominated it since 2015. Had he won it again this year he would have beaten Victor Valdes' record and become the first goalkeeper to win it five times in a row.
Courtois has heard many times before that Atletico Madrid never regret losing him, first back to Chelsea and then to Real Madrid because along came Oblak. Courtois was pelted by toy rats the first time he went to play for Real Madrid at the Metropolitano in February 2019. They don't like him at Atletico, and they don't seem to think much of him at Chelsea either but he has less reason than ever to care now that he is finally winning over the Real Madrid supporters.
Courtois had hoped former Chelsea team-mate Eden Hazard would be able to lead Real Madrid's title charge but he has had injury problems all season.
'Hazard is back and with a lot of energy.' Thibaut said in an interview with El Mundo just before the restart. 'The stoppage has enabled him to get fit again. He can help us win the title. He is a key player for us.'
But the reality has been different. He was kicked in a Champions League game against Paris Saint Germain in November and that kept him out for almost three months. He returned in February of this year but was sidelined again soon after, and needed surgery on the right ankle in March.
This is the same ankle he first fractured in 2017 while still at Chelsea. So far he has one goal for Madrid in 13 starts and his hopes of improving on that during the run-in have been frustrated. He has missed the last two matches.
Madrid have coped thanks largely to Benzema's goals, the leadership of Ramos, and Courtois' decisive goalkeeping.
Now he looks like overcoming Oblak to land the Zamora prize this season. He won it twice at Atletico Madrid from 2012. He is back to the kind of form he showed then when he was hard to beat and seemed to have only success stretched out in front of him.
It has not always been easy for him at Real Madrid. His first season was not convincing and he received more criticism earlier this season when it was claimed he had a panic attack at half time in a game against Brugges after he was blamed for Madrid going behind in the Champions League qualifier.
Asked by El Mundo if he had ever used a Sports Psychologist Courtois said: 'Mentally I'm very strong, I don't need a psychologist but I think that it can really help and we shouldn't be frivolous about the subject.
'That's why I got annoyed when it was published that I had an anxiety attack at half time in the game against Brugges.
'There are people that have a really bad time with this. There are professionals that cannot take the pressure even NBA champion Kevin Love admitted he suffered from depression.'
That in-depth interview earned him praise for its honesty and maturity. He also revealed that the goal that Ramos headed past him in the 2014 Champions League final when he was seconds from being crowned European Champion with Atletico Madrid is there on the dressing room wall at the Santiago Bernabeu to remind him every matchday.
Perhaps he can canvass for it to be changed by one of the stops that have helped Madrid win the league if he does see them over the line.
The praise has come from all sides including from the Real Madrid keeper Paco Buyo whose record he is now honing in on. 'The second season is the one when you really have to cement your place,' Buyo said in January. And putting Courtois in the same league as Jan Oblak and Marc-Andre ter Stegen he added: 'If he continues at this level then he definitely is one of the best three keepers in the world.'
He will have been definitively better than those two this season, if he can continue his form for just four more games.