Chelsea has a penalty system that is staffed by the manager and the captains, and the list of no-nos is placed at the start of the season to their players' group treasure.
Late for training? That's a fine. Late on a game day? Oof, that's a double fine, and yes, we're talking about thousands.
Marc Cucurella has never had to pay such a fine at Chelsea in his three years. Not to be late. Not before leaving his filthy socks in the middle of the floor of the change in the room. Not for forgetting to switch his mobile to silent mode when Enzo Maresca performs a team meeting.
Descriptions of the 26-year-old Spaniard, by his colleagues on their Cobham training ground this week by his colleagues anonymous pass on, includes how he is' first in, last ',' ultra diligent ',' bundles of energy ',' the most sympathetic man in the building ',' wrong “understood as player and person,” 'Benkname', 'Always On Time', 'Always On Time', 'Always On Time', 'Always on Time', 'Always on Time', 'Always in the building', 'it is always in the building', 'Always on time'.
Chelsea helped that impeccable timing this season, with no Premier League defender scored more goals than Cucurella after Maresca told him to arrive in the box. They work on it in training, and it was his header of Reece James' Cross, which achieved a 1-0 win over Manchester United to set up the Supershowdown of the Champions League of Sunday with Nottingham Forest.
We will come how he went from hated to rated as Chelsea's most important threat for that Champions League decision maker on the city, but first you cannot donate a profile piece on Cucurella without covering it obvious: the hair. He is the football player that you could only identify from a silhouette, just as likely as everyone to secure a shampoo sponsorship as a side hustle.
Yet there is a cute reason for his flopping mop past it as a curly tribute to his Spanish idol Carles Puyol. Cucurella grew his hair at the request of his mother, Patricia, who wanted an easy way to spy on him when she saw him as a youth footballer for Espanyol and then Barcelona.
It is clear that the style is stuck, and the added bonus is now that it allows its three children, Mateo, Rio and Bella, to see him easily from the stands themselves. After his seven goals this season, they got used to seeing Papi who performed his Penguin party, dedicated to them and his other half, Claudia Rodriguez, after Cucurella once read that they choose one partner for life.
As a couple they are a team and the stars of the Amazon Prime Show married to the game, a program in which they openly spoken and by tears of the challenges with which they were confronted after moving to London after Cucurella's £ 63 million relocation from Brighton in August 2022.
Mateo, their oldest child in five years old, was diagnosed with autism and it took time for his parents to find the perfect school in which he could thrive. Fortunately they have that now, and Cucurella says there is no satisfaction such as seeing Mateo making progress.
There was also the night that their new house was broken into. The family lost about £ 62,000 to goods in the burglary, but more expensive than losing some Louis Vuitton handbags, it was robbed of their peace of mind, making Claudia Rodriguez afraid of sleeping alone with her children when her husband left the house. They increased their safety after that incident.
The holidays to Disneyland Paris, the regular recovering of their favorite film The Lion King, the jokes that were played on top of each other – the Cucurella family is one of love. The Spaniard itself can be something of a big child, travel with his Nintendo switch in the Chelsea teamus and no second invitation needed to tell you why John Cena is such a legend of wrestling.
However, these were personal test times for him, and professionally all this fell together with Cucurella's football when his campaign from 2022-23 supporters enlarged him to Bob to SIDshow.
Manchester City was also in conversation to sign him at the start of that season, but the word is that they told their counterparts from Brighton that they would congratulate them during the next Premier League Board meeting if they succeeded in securing more than £ 50 million for their possession.
The story goes that the Cucurella camp then missed two phone calls from an unknown number. A text followed and it was co-owner of Chelsea Todd Boehly, who invited them to his villa on the Greek island of Mykonos. An agreement worth £ 56 million to £ 63 million with the result of Brighton, but Thomas Tuchel was fired within five weeks of Cucurella signed for Chelsea.
Tuchel's replacement, Graham Potter, tried to use him as a third center back, which led him to be addicted during the break against Aston Villa and after just 36 minutes against Manchester United in October 2022.
Chelsea fans have hunted his introduction as a replacement in the same season in a loss of Champions League for Borussia Dortmund. Cucurella likes to look back on his performance for analysis purposes and probably damped those images.
“That was incredibly difficult for him,” says a source that was in the club at the time, not least because he loved the public atmosphere. He was connected to a loan of Manchester United, but no agreement could be reached after a proposal of £ 2 million was submitted by their Premier League rivals and rejected.
Cucurella remained, but the successor to Potter, Mauricio Pochettino, preferred the use of a middle, Levi Colwill, left behind him. A turning point arrived in a trip to Aston Villa in April 2024. Between the break 2-0 behind, with Cucurella scored his own goal, Pochettino made a tactical tweak. He told Cucurella to turn to midfield for the second half, Chelsea returned to pull 2-2 and then won their next five games to qualify for Europe.
Before the European championship of that summer, Gary Neville suggested that Cucurella was a reason why Spain would not win the tournament. But then? Then they did that. Then the memes and Roberto Carlos started with his own bushy Barnet. He then returned to Chelsea, understood challenges and made opponents for fun and won his critics. When supporters sang his name and sing that he eats 'paella', 'drinks Estrella' and his 'hair is f *** ing massif'.
That remains a favorite song at Stamford Bridge, in which Cucurella was suddenly worth his £ 63 million and no longer seen as a figure of their supposed obsession with Brighton.
He is mainly near Enzo Fernandez – another who has had to show challenges in winning his critics since he signed for £ 106.8 million – with the Spanish speakers in the Chelsea team who all have their own group cat on the road.
Cucurella and Fernandez are similar because they are both good at undergoing the skin of opponents with neither afraid of being annoying. That needle is needed, where Maresca manages the youngest side in the Premier League and not want them to be seen as naive pushovers by rivals.
It followed last Friday's home victory on Manchester United that Cucurella was caught by the other co-owner Behdad Eghali of the club when he approached the tunnel. Eghbali is desperately looking for a return to the Champions League next season, and his main goal was crucial. The blues hierarchy appreciates the work he does, and as soon as the World Cup this summer is over, there is a plan to evaluate who a contract bump is worthy among the players.
Moises Caicedo is at the top of the list after being called both the player of the season of the players and the supporters of the season, but you suspect that Cucurella does not remain too far behind. Some in the club say that he would also have been a worthy winner of those prizes, especially since nobody scored more goals for Chelsea in 2025 than their left side.
Chances are that the city area will tear Cucurella tomorrow, because everything they see is a crazy hair wind. But there will be no angry of the end of the Chelsea. Only partying if their new cult hero can do another performance that brings them back to the Champions League.