{"id":639999,"date":"2026-06-15T14:44:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T14:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/639999\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T14:44:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T14:44:07","slug":"marc-cucurella-joins-real-madrid-will-enzo-fernandez-follow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/639999\/","title":{"rendered":"Marc Cucurella joins Real Madrid – will Enzo Fernandez follow?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The exit of Cucurella from Chelsea<\/a> is a curious one.<\/p>\n

Only last season, the Spain international agreed improved financial terms without extending his contract, a deal that was never formally announced by the club.<\/p>\n

After winning the European Championship with Spain, along with the Conference League and Club World Cup at Chelsea<\/a>, Cucurella appeared to be an integral part of the side under former manager Enzo Maresca.<\/p>\n

However, his form dipped under Maresca’s mid-season replacement, Liam Rosenior, and – amid a run of poor results – Cucurella criticised the managerial uncertainty and the running of the club more broadly.<\/p>\n

Unlike Fernandez, who made similar comments in March, Cucurella was not formally punished.<\/p>\n

Yet, despite saying in recent days that he had spoken to incoming boss Xabi Alonso and liked the idea of playing under him, he has opted to leave for Madrid.<\/p>\n

Cucurella was quoted by Marca last week as saying: “Yes, I’m attracted to Xabi Alonso’s project. I’ve spoken with him and he inspired a lot of confidence in me. I’ve also spoken with Grimaldo and Borja, who have worked with him, and they spoke very highly of him. The project seems very interesting.”<\/p>\n

Part of his reasoning was a desire to return to Spain, with three children and having spent six years in London, his agency worked alongside Chelsea<\/a> to find a suitable move to one of the big three clubs in his home country. <\/p>\n

For Chelsea<\/a>, the deal makes financial sense. They finished 10th in the Premier League last season, will lose substantial revenue by missing out on European competition, do not currently have a long-term front-of-shirt sponsor, and remain under scrutiny from Uefa under a settlement agreement after breaching squad cost rules.<\/p>\n

Although the club insist they do not need to sell players and will remain compliant, the sale of Cucurella improves their financial position. While it represents a small loss on the \u00a360m paid to sign him from Brighton<\/a> in 2022, due to transfer fees being amortised over the length of his contract, it equates to a profit of around \u00a317.5m in accounting terms.<\/p>\n

In addition, Chelsea<\/a> will have fewer matches next season. With Cucurella turning 28 next month and having three years remaining on his contract, this may have represented the final opportunity to maximise a fee for a player keen to move.<\/p>\n

Cucurella was, however, one of Chelsea<\/a>‘s most consistent performers over the last two seasons and his departure will reduce the average age of a squad already the youngest in the Premier League. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The exit of Cucurella from Chelsea is a curious one. Only last season, the Spain international agreed improved…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-639999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=639999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}