Real Madrid nabs Cucurella from Barça and ignites a debate on social networks

BarcelonaMarc Cucurella is the new player for Real Madrid. The Catalan full-back, trained at La Masia, will wear white for the next six seasons after a lightning operation worked on in silence by the white club, which will pay 60 million between fixed and variables for a starting player for the Spanish national team who was on the market.

It had been vox populi for some time that the full-back from Alella would consider his future at Stamford Bridge when the summer transfer window arrived. Although the footballer had been comfortably settled in London for years, his situation at the blue outfit – he was one of the captains – has changed in recent months, especially since January. At that time, the English entity dismissed coach Enzo Maresca, with whom Cucu had a good relationship. The team's situation under the direction of Liam Rosenior – who was the coach of Strasbourg, from the same sports conglomerate as Chelsea – did not improve either and, in fact, he would also end up being sacked to make way for Xabi Alonso's arrival.

The Londoners finished the season outside the Champions League. With the policy of buying and selling young footballers that the club has followed since American magnate Todd Boehly took ownership in 2022, the team has lacked stability for some time. Cucurella himself questioned this transfer policy a few months ago in an interview with The Athletic. In fact, despite being only 27 years old, he was one of the most experienced players in a dressing room that undergoes many changes every year.

Cucurella and his family – he is married to the influencer Claudia Rodríguez and they have three children, Mateo, Ría and Bella, born in 2019, 2021 and 2023– were eager to return to Spanish territory, and although Barça made its interest clear in knowing the player's intentions a few months ago, Real Madrid is the one who has made the first move, as in the case of Bernardo Silva. In exchange for a sum close to 60 million euros, the defender is tied to the Madrid club for six seasons, until 2032. It hasn't even been a year since Real Madrid, at the request of Xabi Alonso, signed lateral Álvaro Carreras for 50 million euros from Benfica.

Cucurella's wife, Claudia Garcia, seeing the flood of criticism the footballer is receiving on social media for signing for Real Madrid despite his past at Barça, has shared a picture on Instagram where she appears as a child dressed in the white team's kit and the phrase: "I'm bursting with pride and happiness, let the adventure begin". The influencer, in addition to being a fashion designer and ballet dancer, hopes to see her followers and influence grow by moving her sphere of social action and event promotion from the English capital to the Spanish one.

Amidst the controversy on social media, even fake statements have gone viral in which Cucurella falsely said he would shave his head – his hair has accompanied him throughout his professional career – before signing for Real Madrid. Cucurella's last public statement about Barça was at the end of March, during a press conference when he was with the Spanish national team. He was asked what he would do if Barça called him to sign him and the footballer replied: "If these situations arise, they are difficult to turn down, but I would have to consider it. In the end, it's not just about me, I also have to think about my family, deciding together what is best for us".

Barça never bet enough on Marc Cucurella

At Barça, Ernesto Valverde never trusted him enough as a replacement for Jordi Alba – who never tolerated competition much – and they opted for Juan Miranda, who also ended up packing his bags. From the sporting direction at that time, they also didn't fight hard enough for him, neither when he went on loan to Eibar in 2018 – the Basques would sign him at the end of that season exercising a purchase option of 2 million euros – nor when he had the option to return and continued his path to Getafe before making the leap to England, where he stood out at Brighton.

In the summer of 2022, Pep Guardiola wanted to sign him for City, but the club was not willing to match the more than 65 million that Chelsea paid for him. Now Cucurella is definitively moving away from Barça by signing for Real Madrid of José Mourinho and Florentino Pérez.