MaArc Cucurella drinks Estrella, eats paella and has a lot of hair. At least that’s how it’s sung, and at least one of them is true. You’ve seen the photo of Spain’s last game, you’ve undoubtedly seen it too. He smiled at the picture, as he often does. In it, he is running alongside Florian Wirtz. His signature effort and intensity, and his signature curls, make this photo his. Looks like there’s a dog Hop on his shoulder and bark at the German wing – well, if it works – and one thing is for sure, it does.
Cucurella is a funny guy who once said he wanted to be a firefighter and told El Mundo he’d do better facing mobs as a stand-up comedian. He’s also a footballer. In fact, former Eibar coach and ultimate old-school manager, José Luis Mendilibar, defined him that way in the simplest and most meaningful tribute: not a machine-readable player, not a star-watcher, more cult hero than superhero, but a player who knows how to play. And at Euro 2024, he was a revelation.
It may seem a bit silly for a 25-year-old £60m Chelsea player who previously played for Barcelona, but Cucurella calls it “normal” and stresses he doesn’t mind waiting for recognition. “It doesn’t matter if it comes sooner or later, what matters is that people appreciate you because you’re playing well,” he says. “People watch La Liga and the teams they’ve followed since they were little, so when they go abroad they lose sight of themselves a bit. But what we’re doing here is great and they’re following now, which is great. It’s all the result of a long period of hard work and I’m really happy to be here.”
Espanyol, Barcelona B, Eibar, Getafe. Not the most obvious route. After such great performances at Brighton that Manchester City made a move for him, Cucurella had a difficult start at Chelsea. He and his son got ill, their house was robbed, he had ankle surgery, but it was Chelsea. Everything was chaos, everything was upsetting. But even if he was seen as a symbol of extravagance and fans were unsure, he was central to the team’s revival and they got him on their side. In the end, everyone is behind him, in large part because everything he does, he does for others.
In October 2020, Enrique Ballester wrote a column in El Periodico asking for help with the worst problem imaginable: his four-year-old son Theo was becoming a Getafe fan, despite living 450 kilometers away in Castellón. Basically, it was because Cucurella turned around every time he opened a pack of soccer stickers and found everything about him funny: his name, his hairstyle, the way he bumped into everyone, fell over, got up and did it all over again. “He’ll blame me when he’s 40, tied to Getafe and can’t find his purpose on earth,” Ballester lamented. He begged Cucurella to cut his hair or go bald, concluding that “there’s more danger involved than you can imagine.”
Cucurella didn’t, and although he says he never would, he sent Te’o a shirt after reading the article. I’m grateful to have fansHe is currently scoring a lot of goals and performing outstandingly in a quality Euros squad.
Maybe he never expected to be here at all. He made his Spain debut against Lithuania in 2021 but then didn’t play for nearly three years, finally returning in March this year but it never seemed permanent. He hadn’t been in the squad for the last World Cup, the past two Nations Leagues or this Euro qualifier. Jordi Alba’s retirement and injuries to Alejandro Balde and José Luis Gaya led to his eventual selection, but even then most thought Alejandro Grimaldo, his close friend in the team, would play ahead of him.
Instead, Cucurella started and excelled. It might take a little time, but he has always been adaptable. At Barcelona B, he was seen as less technically skilled than others and made just one substitute appearance, but at Eibar he played in a midfield role, both inside and out. From there he moved to Getafe, under the often, and often unfairly, caricature of a bastard, Jose Bordalas, before moving to Brighton, where he took a completely different approach, playing as an inverted full-back at the Bridge.
And now, the flying, action-packed full-back seems to be everywhere. No other pairing has worked as well with Nico Williams in the competition. He believes the relationship is based on a chemistry that is more evident off the pitch than on it. “You don’t even have to look for it,” Cucurella says. “We have similar personalities, we like to goof around and joke around, we’re very happy and fun. He wants the best for me and he knows that if he makes a mistake I’m there. His job is attack and mine is defense. We fit well together. Nico does great things for the team if he feels that I’m covering for him.” [players like him] “They’re confident they can make the decisive play. My role is to get the ball and let him make the play. Whatever he needs, I’m here.”
With Dani Carvajal suspended, the question is whether Cucurella will replace Kylian Mbappé. The question itself speaks to the trust they now have in him, the sense that if anyone can do the job, he can. “Left, right, I’ll do my best wherever,” he says. After all, he has always been exactly what they wanted him to be, ferociously committed to his job and relentlessly charging ahead like a dog with a bone in its mouth.
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He’s also fast. He was the only Spanish defender recorded at over 30 kilometres per hour, which may be important when playing against the French players, but there’s also something more cerebral. “No matter how fast they are, if you have the ball and don’t let them run, you can stop them,” Cucurella says. “Germany had fast players too. [Jamal] Musiala, [Leroy] Sané: We handled it well. France are quick and they will try to take advantage of that. We can’t let our guard down. A lot will depend on our concentration for the 90 minutes, our vigilance when we have the ball, and if we lose the ball quickly and can get it back then we have a good chance.
“Whoever’s in charge, we’ve all proven we are great players. Being here isn’t just given to you. You have to play well and be good enough, you have to earn it. Maybe it helped that we weren’t in the conversation. Few people considered us favourites and we had nothing to lose. We knew we had a good team and we just needed to put in a few final efforts. We’re in the semi-finals and it feels great. People are enjoying watching us play and following us, but in the end the team that will be remembered is the champion.
“We have a really strong unity. We have a special bond. We have a great team behind us. People may not know them, but they are very important. We’ve been here together for many days and there’s only one week left. The best is yet to come. We want to be champions next Sunday.”
