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  • 21 Aug, 2019

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Marc Cucurella
Marc Cucurella Saseta (born 22 July 1998) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a left-back or left wing-back for Premier League club Chelsea and the Spain national team.

Cucurella made his senior club debut at Barcelona, but spent most of his time there in the reserve team. He went on to play over 100 La Liga games for Eibar and Getafe, before joining Brighton & Hove Albion in 2021. He spent a season with Brighton before joining Chelsea in 2022.

Cucurella was capped for Spain over every youth level from under-16 to under-23, winning the silver medal with the latter at the 2020 Olympic tournament. He made his debut for the senior team in 2021, representing the side at UEFA Euro 2024, where the team won the tournament.

Club career

Barcelona and Eibar

Cucurella was born in Alella, Barcelona, Catalonia. He started playing futsal with FS Alella before joining Espanyol's youth teams in 2006, and in 2012, he moved to Barcelona. On 26 November 2016, while still a junior, he made his senior debut with the reserves by starting in a 4–0 home win over L'Hospitalet in the Segunda División B.

Cucurella contributed with 17 appearances for the side, achieving promotion to the Segunda División via the play-offs. On 7 July 2017, he renewed his contract until 2021, with a €12 million clause. He made his professional debut on 1 September, starting in a 2–2 away draw against Granada. He made his first-team debut on 24 October, coming on as a late substitute for Lucas Digne in a 3–0 Copa del Rey away win against Real Murcia. He scored his first senior goal for Barcelona B on 17 March 2018, equalising in a draw away to Lorca.

On 31 August 2018, Cucurella was loaned to fellow La Liga club SD Eibar, for one year with a €2 million buyout clause. He made his top-flight debut on 25 September in a 1–0 loss away to Espanyol. Appearing as one of eight changes by manager José Luis Mendilibar, he was praised by Marca journalist Ander Barroso despite the result. He scored his first La Liga goal on the final day of the season on 9 May 2019, opening the scoring in 2–2 draw at home to his parent club.

Getafe

At the end of his loan, Eibar exercised Cucurella's clause, making him a permanent player for the Basque team; along with the transfer, Barcelona added a €4 million buyback option. On 16 July 2019, after just sixteen days as a permanent Eibar player, this clause was activated, only for him to be loaned to Getafe two days later for the upcoming season, with an option to buy for €6 million and 40% of the rights remaining to Barcelona.

Cucurella made his European debut on 19 September 2019 as a substitute for Kenedy in a 1–0 home win over Trabzonspor in the UEFA Europa League group stage. He played eight games of that campaign, which ended 11 months later with a 2–0 loss on aggregatre to Inter Milan in the last 16.

On 3 March 2020, Getafe triggered his option to buy for €6 million, no longer connecting him to Barcelona. The club fully exercised his option to buy on 30 June.

Brighton & Hove Albion

On 31 August 2021, Cucurella joined Premier League club Brighton & Hove Albion on a five-year contract. He made his debut for Brighton on 11 September, starting and playing 82 minutes before being substituted in the 1–0 away win over Brentford. Eight days later, he made his home debut, playing the whole of the 2–1 victory over Leicester City. His chipped cross set up Danny Welbeck's headed equaliser in added time, finishing 1–1 away to Chelsea on 29 December. On 7 May 2022, he scored his first goal for the club; he netted the second of a 4–0 win over Manchester United by shooting from Leandro Trossard's pull back. Three days later, at the club's end of season awards, Cucurella won Players' Player of the Season as well as being voted Player of the Season.

Chelsea

On 5 August 2022, Cucurella signed for Premier League club Chelsea on a six-year contract. The fee was reported to be worth an initial £55 million, potentially rising to £62 million in add-ons, which was a record fee received by Brighton. On 6 August, he made his debut as a substitute in a 1–0 away win against Everton in the Premier League. On 7 March 2023, he was named Player of the Match in the Champions League round-of-16 second leg match against Borussia Dortmund, which ended in a 2–0 win and qualification to the quarter-final. On 17 March 2024, he scored his first goal for the club by netting the opener in a 4–2 victory over Leicester City in the FA Cup quarter-finals.

International career

After representing Spain at under-16, under-17 and under-19 level, Cucurella was called up to the Spain under-21 team in September 2019, playing 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification matches against Kazakhstan and Montenegro. He captained Spain to the semi-final stage of the 2021 European U21 championship, where they were beaten by Portugal.

Cucurella was also part of the Spain under-23 team that won the silver medal at the 2020 Olympic Games, that took place in 2021 due to the previous year's postponement as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In November 2020, manager Luis Enrique called up Cucurella to the senior Spain squad for UEFA Nations League games against Switzerland and Germany, as José Gayà was injured. He was an unused substitute for the fixtures.

Due to the isolation of some national team players following the positive COVID-19 test of Sergio Busquets, Spain's under-21 squad were called up for the international friendly against Lithuania on 8 June 2021. Cucurella made his debut, acting as captain, in this match that Spain won 4–0.

On 26 March 2024, Cucurella won his second cap for the Spain senior team, playing the full 90 minutes at left back in a 3–3 draw with Brazil at the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu.

In June 2024, Cucurella was named in Spain's squad for UEFA Euro 2024 in Germany. He made his competitive debut in the team's opening match of the tournament, starting at left back as La Furia Roja beat Croatia 3–0 at Berlin's Olympiastadion. Cucurella provided the assist on Mikel Oyarzabal's winning goal as Spain defeated England 2–1 in the final.

Career statistics

Club

As of match played 10 November 2024
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League National cup League cup Europe Other Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Barcelona B 2016–17 Segunda División B 11 0 — — — 6 0 17 0
2017–18 Segunda División 37 1 — — — — 37 1
Total 48 1 — — — 6 0 54 1
Barcelona 2017–18 La Liga 0 0 1 0 — 0 0 — 1 0
Eibar (loan) 2018–19 La Liga 31 1 2 1 — — — 33 2
Getafe (loan) 2019–20 La Liga 37 1 1 0 — 7 0 — 45 1
Getafe 2020–21 La Liga 37 3 2 0 — — — 39 3
2021–22 La Liga 1 0 0 0 — — — 1 0
Total 75 4 3 0 — 7 0 — 85 4
Brighton & Hove Albion 2021–22 Premier League 35 1 2 0 1 0 — — 38 1
Chelsea 2022–23 Premier League 24 0 0 0 1 0 8 0 — 33 0
2023–24 Premier League 21 0 2 1 3 0 — — 26 1
2024–25 Premier League 10 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 12 0
Total 55 0 2 1 5 0 9 0 0 0 71 1
Career total 244 7 10 2 6 0 16 0 6 0 282 9
  1. ^ Includes Copa del Rey, FA Cup
  2. ^ Includes EFL Cup
  3. ^ Appearances in Segunda División B play-offs
  4. ^ Appearances in UEFA Europa League
  5. ^ Appearances in UEFA Champions League
  6. ^ Appearance in UEFA Conference League

International

As of match played 15 November 2024
Appearances and goals by national team and year
National team Year Apps Goals
Spain 2021 1 0
2024 12 0
Total 13 0

Honours

Barcelona

Spain U23

Spain

Individual

References

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  2. ^ "Squad List: Men's Olympic Football Tournament Tokyo 2020: Spain (ESP)" (PDF). FIFA. 22 July 2021. p. 16. Retrieved 28 August 2021.
  3. ^ "Marc Cucurella". Chelsea F.C. Retrieved 24 December 2022.
  4. ^ "Cucurella: Profile". worldfootball.net. HEIM:SPIEL. Retrieved 27 August 2022.
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  11. ^ Martínez, Alfonso (17 March 2018). "Cucurella priva a Fabri de su primera alegría y salva al filial" [Cucurella deprives Fabri of his first joy and saves the reserves]. Marca (in Spanish). Madrid. Retrieved 8 May 2022.
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  38. ^ Moñino, Ladislao J. (12 November 2020). "Luis Enrique llama a Cucurella en sustitución de Gayà" [Luis Enrique calls up Cucurella in place of Gayà]. El País (in Spanish). Retrieved 8 May 2022.
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  51. ^ "Team of the Tournament". uefa.com. Union of European Football Associations. Retrieved 20 July 2015.
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