Despite years of interest that intensified once more in recent weeks, Atlético Madrid have again lost out on a bid to sign Chelsea and Spain full-back Marc Cucurella.
That’s according to the influencer Fabrizio Romano, in reporting that has since been corroborated in Marca and elsewhere.
Cucurella has agreed personal terms with Real Madrid on a five-year contract, and Los Blancos will meet Chelsea’s asking price of roughly €50 million as their busy summer continues. Cucurella will join Denzel Dumfries, Ibrahima Konaté and Bernardo Silva as Madrid’s newest signings for returning head coach José Mourinho.
After trying to sign Cucurella from Getafe in 2021, Atlético reactivated its interest in the 2024 European champion this summer. Last month, Marca reported that Cucurella was Mateu Alemany’s “priority” in defense, while The Athletic explained two weeks ago that Atleti could press ahead with a move for the 27-year-old without having to sell players first.
But it was all over once Real Madrid made its interest known. Even after spending €50 million on Benfica’s Álvaro Carreras last summer, Madrid have dipped back into the market to sign Cucurella for the same fee — and the Rojiblancos will have to look elsewhere for a new starting left-back of their own.
Missing out on Cucurella and Bernardo in the same week is a big blow to Alemany, who is going to catch some heat for failing to close deals for those two priority targets. That said, this is another reminder that for all of Atlético’s progress on and off the pitch, even after Apollo Sports Capital’s ascent to majority ownership in a €2.5 billion transaction, the financial realities between Atleti and Real Madrid are as stark as ever.
Cucurella has polarized opinion online, but he was arguably the most complete full-back on the market — all while being in Atlético’s price range, or so we thought. With that option off the table, Atleti might now look toward Bayer Leverkusen’s Álex Grimaldo, who wants to return to Spain and reportedly won’t cost more than €10 million. However, FC Barcelona were in on Cucurella and probably will launch a bid to sign Grimaldo (another graduate of La Masia) after coming up short in this race too.
