From struggler to star man: Marc Cucurella reflects on his Chelsea journey ahead of Club World Cup final

Marc Cucurella has opened up on the struggles he faced when he first joined Chelsea while reflecting on his path to becoming one of his team’s most important players.

The Spaniard signed for Chelsea in 2022 for £62m from Brighton but initially struggled for form following the club’s significant investment to bring him in.

“It was tough at the beginning because I’m not a player that has the quality to take the ball and change the game in one action and get past three players,” Cucurella said.

“I’m more of a player that needs to have the team playing well to show my qualities. So at the beginning, it was very tough because the team didn’t have an identity or a clear way to play.

“I think I struggled a little and then I understood that the club paid a lot of money for me so they expect that I’m a machine and I score every game.

“Before I joined Chelsea, I always played every game, I played at smaller clubs so you don’t feel this pressure. When I played at other clubs, it’s like when we win, I’m very happy, if we draw it’s another point, so we don’t get relegated.

“But when you come here, you feel like you need to win every game. The first games (at Chelsea) I don’t feel like I enjoyed, because when I win, it’s very important, but when you join here, it’s like ‘you win, ok, it’s your job’ and you don’t celebrate. So it’s difficult to feel this pressure but I think I try always to work and improve.

“The most important thing, it’s difficult, but it’s to not lose my confidence. I’m the same player that I was when I signed in my first years but now I have more confidence in myself, I trust my quality and it’s difficult to understand that when you play a good game, you’re not the best and when you play a bad game, you’re not the worst. You need to always try to stay in the same line. It’s an important thing to learn in the big clubs.”

Chelsea face a mammoth task against PSG, who won the Champions League by beating Inter Milan 5-0 less than six weeks ago and are in the final of this competition having beaten Real Madrid 4-0 in the semi-final.

Asked whether Luis Enrique’s side are the best team in the world by a large distance, Cucurella said: “I think so, they 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 did our job in the (past) season. We have a good opportunity to show that we are ready. I think we are ready for the game.

“We deserve to be in the final on Sunday and then we have a tough team to play and this is an opportunity to show that we have a good team, and hopefully we can win.”

Chelsea have been through a period of uncertainty since mid-2022 when Roman Abramovich sold the club, but finally seem to be back on the right track.

And Cucurella says it is nice to see the Blues back competing for trophies: “It is very good. Because when I arrived at this club it was difficult and in the beginning we had a lot of changes.

“The results were difficult. I think we always tried to give 100 percent. We know Chelsea is a big club. After 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.”

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