Table of Contents
What religion is Marc Cucurella?
Marc Cucurella is a Spanish professional footballer who has not publicly discussed his religious beliefs.
Marc Cucurella plays as a left-back for La Liga club Real Madrid and represents the Spanish national team. He came through FC Barcelona’s La Masia academy before a career that took him through Eibar, Getafe, Brighton & Hove Albion, and Chelsea before Real Madrid signed him in June 2026. He has won the UEFA Conference League and the FIFA Club World Cup with Chelsea, and he was part of the Spain squad that won the UEFA Euro 2024 and the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Cucurella signed a six-year contract with Real Madrid. The fee is £47.5m plus £4.3m in add-ons, with the potential to rise to £51.8m in total.
Early life
Marc Cucurella Saseta was born on July 22, 1998, in Alella, a municipality in the province of Barcelona, Spain. He grew up as the eldest of three siblings in his household. He began playing football at age four, starting out in futsal with FS Alella before joining Espanyol’s youth teams in 2006, and in 2012, at age fourteen, he signed for FC Barcelona’s La Masia academy.
Club career
Cucurella spent years in Barcelona’s youth system before moving into the club’s B team, playing in the Segunda División B. He helped Barcelona B win promotion to the Segunda División in 2017 and renewed his contract with the club that year. His senior first-team debut came in October 2017, in a Copa del Rey match against Real Murcia, though his first-team opportunities stayed limited given competition from established players such as Jordi Alba.
He was subsequently loaned to SD Eibar for the 2018-19 La Liga season, playing 33 matches and scoring two goals, one of them against Barcelona. He was deployed in the position just in front of the left-back slot where he finished the season with two goals and two assists combined across La Liga and the Copa del Rey. Eibar signed him permanently in the summer of 2019, with a 4 million euros buyback clause attached for Barcelona. Barcelona activated that clause on 16 July 2019 and brought him back to the club just one month after the permanent transfer had gone through.
Cucurella then moved to Getafe CF, initially on loan for the 2019-20 season before the deal became permanent for a reported €10 million. He made 75 La Liga appearances for Getafe over two seasons before his departure.
Brighton & Hove Albion
On 31 August 2021, Cucurella joined Premier League club Brighton & Hove Albion on a five-year contract. The following month, he made his club debut, where he started and played 82 minutes in a 1–0 away victory over Brentford before making his home debut eight days later during a 2–1 win against Leicester City.
He made 38 appearances across all competitions during his single season with Brighton & Hove Albion. His debut Premier League season proved successful enough to earn him both the Brighton Players’ Player of the Season and the overall Player of the Season awards.
Chelsea
Cucurella signed for Chelsea FC from Brighton & Hove Albion on August 5, 2022, for a fee reported in excess of £62 million. The deal made him one of the most expensive defenders in football history at the time. He made his club debut the following day, entering as a substitute during a 1–0 away victory over Everton.
Across his four seasons with the club, Cucurella went on to make 163 appearances for Chelsea across all competitions and later ended his stay by winning the 2024–25 UEFA Conference League and the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup.
Toward the end of that spell, he publicly criticized the club’s decision to sack manager Enzo Maresca.
Real Madrid
Real Madrid sign Marc Cucurella from Chelsea for £52m as Jose Mourinho begins his second stint in charge of the Spanish giants. The transfer came with a six-year contract, with salary terms not publicly disclosed by the club. The move also marked a return to La Liga for the defender, who previously developed within the youth academy system of rivals Barcelona.
International career
Cucurella’s path through Spain’s national teams ran from the under-16 through under-23 levels before his senior debut. Along the way, he was part of the Spain squad that won silver at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, and his senior national team debut came that same year.
He became Spain’s starting left-back during their Euro 2024 title run, assisting the winning goal in the final, and was named to UEFA’s Team of the Tournament alongside Lamine Yamal, Nico Williams, and Dani Olmo.
Cucurella went on to win the 2026 FIFA World Cup with Spain. He started in all eight of Spain’s matches through the round of 32 and provided two assists in a 3-0 win over Austria in that round. That same round of 32, he became the first Spanish player to provide two assists in a World Cup knockout match during a 3–0 victory over Austria.
Personal life
Cucurella is married to Claudia Rodríguez. Together they have three children. Mateo, the eldest, was born in 2019 and has autism, and the couple has spoken about that experience on the “Married to the Game” Season 2 series on Amazon Prime Video Sport.