Chelsea star was booed by own fans but is now a hero who can be key to Club World Cup glory

Marc Cucurella has gone from Chelsea outcast to one of the club’s most integral players in the space of just 15 months.

The likeable 26-year-old left-back joined Chelsea from Brighton in August 2022 in a deal worth £63m but it was a tough start for the Spain international.

Cucurella admits he was like a rabbit in headlights when he arrived at Stamford Bridge in 2022Credit: Getty

Now he’s a key playerCredit: GettyFormer Chelsea boss Graham Potter admitted he was scapegoated by his own fans and needed time away from the first team to rediscover his form and confidence.

“He came in with a high fee, and at a time when the team wasn’t functioning,” revealed Potter. “He had to take some stick at Stamford Bridge. It was quite hostile.”

Yet Cucurella is now a fan favourite, and the days of booing the Spaniard are long gone, and instead reserved solely for opposing fans, who have quickly turned him into a kind of pantomime villain.

“Now they [rival fans] don’t leave me alone, never!” said Cucurella, speaking to talkSPORT and other assembled media ahead of Chelsea’s Club World Cup Final with Paris Saint-Germain on Sunday in New Jersey, live on talkSPORT.

READ MORE ON CHELSEA“I feel okay. I know when they do this it’s because we’re going through a good spell.

“I think it’s part of football. The most important thing is I try to focus on the game and what I can control to help the team to win.

“It was difficult in the first months at Chelsea. I was like, ‘Oh f****** hell!’ The team didn’t have an identity or a clear way of playing. And I’m not really a player that has the quality to take the ball and change the game in one action, or pass three players.

“I’m more of a player that needs to have the team playing well to show my qualities.

“I think I struggled a little, and back then I understood that the club paid a lot of money for me. They expected me to be a machine and score in every game!

“When you come here, you feel like you need to win every match. And maybe I didn’t enjoy my first games at Chelsea. Here when you win it’s like, ‘Okay, that’s your job’ and you don’t celebrate [as much as at other clubs].

Cucurella joined Chelsea from Brighton and he admits he found the adjustment in standards difficult to begin withCredit: Getty“I’m the same player that I was when I signed in my first years [at Chelsea], but now I have more confidence. I trust my quality.”

Cucurella is currently on an outstanding run of form that started last April in the 2-2 draw against Aston Villa when Mauricio Pochettino first used him as an inverted full-back.

Cucurella subsequently made UEFA’s team of the tournament as Spain beat England last summer to win Euro 2024. Before the tournament, Gary Neville called him out as a weak link, but that prediction couldn’t have been further from the truth.

And last season, Cucurella featured 48 times in all competitions for Chelsea, scoring a career-high seven goals in a single campaign as Chelsea qualified for the Champions League and won the UEFA Conference League.

“The games of the season before last [under Pochettino] we started doing better,” said Cucurella. “Then Enzo Maresca arrived with a lot of energy and brought good ideas.

“For a young team like ours, it is good to have a manager like this because we love to learn and he can teach us. We are able to understand his ideas and show them [on the pitch].

Cucurella is now one of the world’s elite full-backs having won Euro 2024 last summer, assisting the winning goal against EnglandCredit: Getty“We had a good season [in 2024/25]. It’s true, for a couple of months [around Christmas] we lost a bit of energy and some confidence, but in general we achieved all that we wanted.

“We wanted Champions League and got it. We won the Conference League, and this is another step forward for us.

“And at the Club World Cup, we suffered a bit because we lost against Flamengo [in the group stage] and a lot of people criticised us. But we stuck together and we deserve to be in the final.”

Cucurella reveals he first became comfortable as a Chelsea player following some time out with an ankle injury sustained against Everton in December 2023.

It gave him a period of welcome contemplation and he made an immediate impact after returning to fitness in March.

“I started to enjoy my journey here after that injury,” admitted Cucurella, who has now made 112 appearances for Chelsea.

Cucurella says he and his teammates have been receptive to Maresca’s management styleCredit: Getty“I was three months out, and then I had a lot of time to think about myself and to know myself better and what I needed to work on more. This was probably the moment that changed my career.

“Yes, it was a bad moment and very tough for me. But then after this injury, my first game back was against Leicester and I scored. Then that evening, the national team called me up because they had an injured left back [Jose Gaya]. Everything moved forward.

“Last summer, I played the Euros, six games in an inverted role. Afterwards, I took a lot of confidence because we played amazing football and I was very important in this [Spain] team.

“Then I came back here and the manager, with his ideas, helped me a lot. He brought the best football out of me. 2024 was my best year of football and hopefully I can do even better [in 2025].”

Chelsea are one win away from becoming world champions for a third timeCredit: GettyIt’s been a seemingly never-ending season for Cucurella, especially if his games for Spain last summer are also factored in. And he featured in June’s Nations League Final loss to Portugal before flying straight to America.

Once the Club World Cup ends, Cucurella will head off on a well-earned Disney cruise with his long-term partner Claudia Rodriguez and their children, Mateo, Rio and Bella.

It will be a chance to switch off from football for a few weeks ahead of the new Premier League season, which starts for Chelsea against Crystal Palace at Stamford Bridge on August 17.

“We have a holiday booked and I will spend 21 days with my family and kids. We have booked a Disney cruise with the kids. I will need to watch all the cartoons! The most important thing is that when I’m with them, I don’t think about football and I enjoy these moments.”

Cucurella’s reason for his penguin celebration is wholesomeCredit: GettyCucurella’s family are well known to Chelsea fans because they all appear on the popular documentary Married To The Game.

He chose to do the show so fans could see his life away from the field. And in the series, an emotional Cucurella also opens up on his four-year-old son Mateo’s autism diagnosis.

“I was very happy to show that footballers have normal lives and normal problems that all people have,” he said. “It was very good. Personally, I didn’t expect that people would love it in this way. I was not nervous but, you know, if things don’t go well then people might say, ‘Oh, [by doing the show] he’s focused on filming not football.

“The producers asked a lot of things. [Speaking about Mateo] was a moment of the interview which happened, I think, because we felt very comfortable. It was very natural.

“It was very good because okay, I play for Chelsea, and I won the Euros, but we have a lot of problems that a lot of families also have. And it’s true, sometimes it’s difficult for others to [understand] because people don’t know.

“If I have the opportunity to show people who think we have a perfect life, it’s not always like this, it can help people. It’s very nice.”

Cucurella also pays tribute to his family every time he scores for Chelsea with a special and touching penguin celebration.

Cucurella did it after scoring against Brentford in a 2-1 victory at Stamford Bridge in December only a week after slipping twice in quick succession to concede goals against Spurs in a game Chelsea were still able to win 5-4.

As a result, it originally appeared a self-trolling act, very much in keeping with his extrovert personality. But there is a different and far sweater reason for Cucurella pulling out the penguin.

“A lot of people think it’s because of the slips against Spurs,” he told talkSPORT in January. “It’s actually because I saw on the internet that penguins choose one partner and family for their life. I want to remember my family when I score. They always support me in my best and worst moments, so the celebration is for them.”

Cucurella now has the chance to round off an incredible 12 months with yet more silverware, and is likely to be key if Chelsea are to upset Paris Saint-Germain. His battle with Desire Doue is certainly an intriguing one.

Cucurella already kept Brazilian wonderkid Estevao Willian relatively quiet when Chelsea beat Palmeiras, even though the soon-to-be Blues player did score one fantastic goal. And he’s now hoping for more of the same on Sunday against a PSG side Cucurella believes are the best in the world.

Chelsea face a fearsome PSG side, who dismantled Real Madrid 4-0 in their semi-finalCredit: Getty

Cucurella’s job is likely to take care of Doue, who scored twice in PSG’s thumping 5-0 win in the Champions League finalCredit: Getty“I think so,” he conceded. “They have shown themselves as this sort of team all season. They play good football but it’s a final, and we have a good opportunity to show we are ready. They have good players but we have good players, too, so it will be a difficult match. It will be 50-50.”

When Spain won Euro 2024, Cucurella committed to dying his hair red. There is no on-record promise of gold locks this time around if Chelsea become Club World Cup champions, but Cucurella is excited by the prospect of being able to don a winner’s badge on his shirt for the next four years.

Then there is the financial reward. Chelsea have already pocketed around £80m by reaching the Club World Cup Final and will get a further £7.5m if they lift the trophy. However, for Cucurella, the prestige of winning the inaugural edition is more important than the money.

“We can have a gold badge on our t-shirt for four years,” he said. “I think this is a good thing to motivate the team.

“The money is more for the owners and sporting directors, but it’s also the first time they have done this competition. We can be the first team to win it. This can give us confidence and energy.

Read More on talkSPORT“I know it’s going to be difficult because it’s [a final] after a long season and the [kick-off] time is a bit difficult. It’s very hot and sometimes the games are not fast and you feel tired, but I think we have a lot of motivating factors to focus on to try to win this final.

“We know Chelsea is a big club. And after a long season, we deserve our place here. We have worked a lot to make this happen and hopefully we can now finish the season with a big trophy.”