Cult hero Cucurella a revelation in Spain’s pursuit of Euro 2024 glory

Marc Cucurella drinks Estrella, eats paella and his hair is massive – or so they sing, and at least one of those things is true. There is a photo from Spain’s last game that you may have seen and he certainly has. He has laughed at it too, which he does with most things. In it, he runs alongside Florian Wirtz, the effort and intensity that defines him, the curly locks that define him too, making it look as if there is a dog riding on his shoulders barking at the Germany winger. Well, if it works. And one thing’s for sure, it’s working.

Cucurella is a funny bloke who once claimed he would like to be a firefighter and told El Mundo he reckoned he would do all right as a standup comedian, taking on the hecklers. He is also a footballer. That, in fact, was the way that his former Eibar coach José Luis Mendilibar, the ultimate in old-school managers, defined him, offering the simplest and most significant of eulogies: not easily measured by machines, not marked out as a star and maybe more cult hero than superhero, but someone who knows how to play. And at Euro 2024, he has been a revelation.

Related: Spain’s Pedri forgives Germany’s Toni Kroos for Euros-ending injury

Which may seem a bit silly for a 25-year-old £60m Chelsea player who has been at Barcelona, but Cucurella calls it “normal”; nor, he insists, does he mind the wait for recognition. “It doesn’t matter if it comes sooner or later, what matters is that people talk highly of you because you’re playing well,” he says. “People watch La Liga, the teams they’ve supported since they were little, so when you go abroad they lose track of you a bit. But what we’re doing here is nice, they’re following now, and that’s lovely. It’s all a product of everything going back a long time, working in silence. And I’m really happy to be here.”

Espanyol, Barcelona B, Eibar, Getafe: it’s not the most obvious route. Brilliant at Brighton, so good that Manchester City moved for him, Cucurella had a difficult start at Chelsea. He had an illness, so did his son, his house was burgled, he underwent ankle surgery and, well, it was Chelsea. All that chaos, all that upheaval. Yet if he was sometimes seen as a symbol of the overspending and fans weren’t sure, he was at the heart of their revival and they were won over. In the end, everyone is with him. Not least because everything he does, he does for others.

Back in October 2020, Enrique Ballester wrote a column in El Periódico, asking for help for the worst problem imaginable: despite living in Castellón, 450km away, his four-year-old son Teo was becoming a Getafe fan, essentially because whenever he opened a pack of football stickers Cucurella looked back at him, and because he found everything about him funny: the name, the hair, the way he crashed into everyone, fell over, got up and then did it all over again. When he’s 40, stuck with Getafe, unable to find meaning to his existence on Earth, he will blame me, Ballester lamented. He pleaded with Cucurella to cut his hair, or go bald, concluding: “there’s more at stake than you could ever imagine.”

Cucurella didn’t do so – he says he never will – but he did read the article and send Teo a shirt, grateful that that he had a fan. He has lots of them now, an outstanding performer in the Euros’ outstanding team.

He may not have expected to be here at all. He made his Spain debut against Lithuania in 2021 but didn’t play again for almost three years, finally returning in March this year, and that didn’t look like being permanent. He was not in the squad for the last World Cup, the last two Nations Leagues or any of the qualifiers for this Euros. The retirement of Jordi Alba and injuries to Alejandro Balde and José Luis Gayà contributed to his eventual inclusion but even then most thought Álex Grimaldo – his best friend in the squad – would be ahead of him.

Instead, Cucurella has been a starter; he has also been superb. It may take a little longer or a little less, but he has always been adaptable: from Barcelona B, where he was seen as a little less technical than others coming through, given a single game as a sub, to a more midfield role at Eibar, playing inside and out. From there to Getafe under José Bordalás, a coach often, and often unfairly, regarded as a caricature of shithousery, on to Brighton and an entirely different approach, to the inverted full-back at the Bridge.

And now this flying, all action full-back, seemingly everywhere. There has been no combination at the competition like his with Nico Williams, a relationship based on a chemistry he believes is found off the pitch more than on it. “You don’t even have to look for it,” Cucurella says. “We have similar personalities and we like messing about, joking; it’s all happy, enjoyable. I know he will do the best he can for me and he knows that if he makes a mistake, I’ll be there. His job’s to attack and mine is to defend. We fit well together. If he feels I’m covering him, then Nico can do great things for our team. When [players like him] are confident they’re decisive. My role is to get the ball and let him play. I’m here for whatever he needs.”

With Dani Carvajal’s suspension, the question is whether Cucurella may swap wings to deal with Kylian Mbappé; that it is even asked says something about the faith they have in him now, the sense that if anyone can do a job, he can. “I will give my best: on the left, the right, or wherever,” he says; he, after all, has always been what they want him to be, sticking ferociously to his task, something in that picture: relentless, like a dog with a bone.

Quick too, the only Spain defender clocked at more than 33km/h, which may be vital against France’s athletes, only there is something more cerebral too. “However fast they are, if we have the ball, if we don’t let them run we can stop them,” Cucurella says. “Germany had fast players too – [Jamal] Musiala, [Leroy] Sané – and we dealt with it well.

France are quick and they will want to use that; we have to be alert. A lot will depend on the concentration over 90 minutes, being vigilant when we have the ball. And if we can recover the ball as soon as we lose it, we have a good chance.

Related: Euro 2024 power rankings: how the teams in the last eight shaped up

“Whoever’s job it is, we have all showed that we are great players. Being here is not just something you’re given. You have to play well, you have to be good enough, you have to earn it. Maybe not being talked about has helped; very few people thought about us as favourites and we had nothing to lose. We knew we had a great team and now there are just a couple more steps to take, a last effort. We’re in a semi-final and it’s lovely. People are enjoying watching us, following us. But in the end, the teams that get remembered are the champions.

“The unity we have is really nice. We have a special connection. There is a great team behind us; people might not know about them but they’re so important. We’ve been here together for many days and now there’s just one week left, the best bit is still to come. We want to be champions next Sunday.”