Chelsea are set to face Paris Saint-Germain in the final of the Club World Cup and Blues star Marc Cucurella is hoping 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 finish his never-ending season in glorious style by winning the Club World Cup.
It was a year ago this weekend that Cucurella helped Spain win the Euros - beating England in the final - which was almost the crowning glory in a turnaround in his own fortunes. Cucurella used to be a target for Chelsea’s boo-boys as he endured two difficult seasons after joining the club from Brighton for a huge fee of £62m in 2022.
But Cucurella won back the fans with his swashbuckling determination which has been such a feature in Chelsea’s run to Sunday’s Club World Cup final in the MetLife Stadium. Cucurella, 26, admits it has been a tough journey through injury, fan backlash and yet it began in March 2024 when he scored against Leicester - and he has never looked back under boss Enzo Maresca.
Spain international Cucurella said: “I started to enjoy my journey here after my injury. When I was injured, I was three months out, and then I had a lot of time to think about myself and to know myself better and what is good for me and what I needed to work on more.
“This is probably the moment that changed my career. Yes, it was a bad moment, it was very tough for me. But then after this injury, my first game back when I played against Leicester, I scored.
“Then that evening, the national team called me because they had an injured left back. Everything moved forward. Then the summer, I played the Euros, six games in an inverted role. After the Euros, I won a lot of confidence because we played amazing 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 my best football out of me. I had to choose, 2024 was my best year of football and hopefully I can do it even better.”
Incredibly, Cucurella made his 60th appearance of the season in Chelsea’s semi final win over Fluminense and most players would feel exhausted by the sheer number of games. Cucurella admits he cannot wait to get on holiday but actually insists that he still feels sharp and that is largely because he is enjoying his football again.
“Here you need to win every game because at the end of the season you want to play for trophies and play finals,” he said. “It’s difficult to understand this and you need to find the motivation in different ways.
“I feel very good to be fair. It’s true that when we play in the heat it’s more difficult, but I understand it’s for the TV because in Europe it’s difficult to wake up and see the game, but it’s true that in my opinion the game is not at the same level of quality, of pace, but I feel very good.
“I came as well from a difficult moment but this season helped a lot. I think the result will help my game as well, the way I play is really good, so I’m enjoying it and hopefully it’s just the beginning.”
There can be no doubt that Paris Saint Germain will be red-hot favourites to win the final as Luis Enrique’s men have produced the best football in the tournament. They destroyed Real Madrid in the semi final.
But Cucurella insists that Chelsea can cause an upset and they have grown in belief and as a team through their month in the United States. He added: “ PSG have shown themselves as this sort of team all season.
“They have a lot of good players. They play good football but I think a final is a final and we can do our job as well and we do our job as well in the season. We have a good opportunity to show that we are ready.
“We know Chelsea is a big club. But after such a long season we deserve our place here. We have shown we have worked a lot to make this happen and hopefully we can finish the season with a big trophy.
“It is true that for a couple of months last season we lost a bit of energy or we lost some confidence but in general we achieved all that we wanted. We wanted to qualify for the Champions League and did it. We won the Conference League and this is another step for us.
“In this tournament we suffered as well because we lost against Flamengo and a lot of people criticised us. But we stuck together and knew that if we stuck to our plan we would get better and we deserve to stay here. We have shown that we are the best two teams in the competition.”
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7
best of luck guys