Chelsea is responsible for Paris Saint-Germain in the final of the Club World Cup and Blues star Marc Cucurella hopes to lift another trophy after enjoying the best year of his career
Marc Cucurella describes 2024 as the best year of his career. And now the Chelsea Full Back wants to end its never -ending season in glorious style by winning the Club World Cup.
It was a year ago this weekend that Cucurella Spain helped to win the euros – to beat England in the final – which was almost the crown in a turnaround in his own fortunes. Cucurella used to be a target for the Boo boys of Chelsea, because he went through two difficult seasons after he came to the club from Brighton in 2022 for a huge fee of £ 62 million.
But Cucurella won the fans back with his Swashbuckling -which has been such a function in Chelsea's Run to Sunday Club World Cup final in the Metlife Stadium. Cucurella, 26, admits that it has been a tough journey due to injury, fan -backlag and yet it started in March 2024 when he scored against Leicester – and he never looked back under Baas Enzo Maresca.
Spain International Cucurella said: “I started to enjoy my journey here after my injury. When I was injured, I was out for three months, and then I had a lot of time to think about myself and get to know myself better and what I had to work for me and what I had to work.
“This is probably the moment that my career changed. Yes, it was a bad moment, it was very difficult for me. But after this injury, my first game when I played against Leicester, I scored.
“Then the national team called me that evening because they had a injured left side. Everything went ahead. Then the summer played the euros, six games in a reverse role. After the euro I won a lot of confidence because we played great football and I was very important in this team.
“Then I came back to Chelsea in the summer and everything was better. The manager, with his ideas, helped me a lot. He brought out my best football. I had to choose, 2024 was my best year of football and hopefully I can do it even better.”
Unbelievable, Cucurella made his 60th performance of the season in Chelsea's Semi -Laatste victory over Fluminense and most players would feel exhausted by the large number of matches. Cucurella admits that he cannot wait to get on vacation, but it actually says that he still feels sharp and that is largely because he enjoys his football again.
“Here you have to win every game, because at the end of the season you want to play for trophies and play finals,” he said. “It's hard to understand this and you have to find motivation in different ways.
“I feel very good to be honest. It is true that when we play in the heat, it is more difficult, but I understand that it is for the TV, because in Europe it is difficult to wake up and see the game, but it is true that in my opinion the game is not at the same level of quality, but I feel very good.
“I also came from a difficult moment, but this season helped a lot. I think the result will also help my game, the way I play is really good, so I enjoy it and hopefully it's just the beginning.”
There can be no doubt that Paris Saint Germain will be red -hot favorites to win the final, because the men of Luis Enrique have produced the best football in the tournament. They destroyed Real Madrid in the semi -final.
But Cucurella insists that Chelsea can cause upset and that they have grown in faith and as a team during their month in the United States. He added: “PSG has shown itself as a team throughout the season.
“They have many good players. They play good football, but I think a final is a final and we can also do our work and we also do our work in the season. We have a good opportunity to show that we are ready.
“We know that Chelsea is a big club. But after such a long season we deserve our place here. We showed that we have worked a lot to make this happen and hopefully we can finish the season with a big trophy.
“It is true that we lost a little energy for a few months last season or have lost some confidence, but in general we have achieved everything we wanted. We wanted to be eligible for the Champions League and did it. We won the Conference League and this is a new step for us.
“In this tournament we also suffered because we lost to Flamengo and many people criticized us. But we stayed together and knew that if we were to keep our plan, we would get better and we deserve to stay here. We showed that we are the best two teams in the competition.”