The news broke on Sunday evening, and it shocked everyone. While Spain was preparing for La Roja’s big debut in this 2026 World Cup against Cape Verde, as well as for Ilia Topuria’s fight, the bomb dropped: Marc Cucurella will become a new Real Madrid player. The Spanish international, who was followed by other clubs in the country, is the fourth recruit for the club from the Iberian capital, after Ibrahima Konaté, Denzel Dumfries and Bernardo Silva. Unlike the other three, his signing has already been made official.
A big transfer window at 60 million euros which surprised everyone, since the Catalan trained at La Masia had not been mentioned as a potential target for the Merengues. On the contrary, it was even announced in the sights of the two enemies of Real Madrid: FC Barcelona and Atlético de Madrid. For the Colchoneros, he was even a priority. That’s not all, since the Madrilenians also snatched Bernardo Silva – who agreed with the Blaugranas and the Rojiblancos – from under the noses of their two historic rivals.
Pérez, stung?
In the case of Marc Cucurella, he really interested Blaugranas and Colchoneros, even being considered the priority of Diego Simeone’s team for his defensive sector. As for Bernardo Silva, he was also seen as the flagship recruit for the Metropolitano side, and his contract was ready to be signed, before Real Madrid called him at the very last moment. Two hard blows inflicted on FC Barcelona and Atlético, to which we can even add Denzel Dumfries, really coveted by the people of Barcelona. We must also mention the Julian Alvarez file with this offer of 150 million euros made official via a press release and which was, according to many journalists, mainly intended to annoy Barça by interfering with negotiations with Atlético for the transfer of the Argentinian, number 1 target of the Catalans.
It is therefore difficult not to see, in all these files, a desire to hurt the club’s two adversaries. Especially since the context between the three is particularly tense at the moment, due to various cases, such as the Negreira case, or the famous press release on Julian Alvarez, which had triggered fairly vehement reactions on the Atlético side. Many are also convinced that recruiting Cucurella and Bernardo Silva, initially promised to the Colchoneros, is a form of revenge for Pérez after the mocking publications of the Rojiblancos on their official networks. Almost conspiracy theories which still need to be put into perspective a little, since according to the Madrid press, it was Mourinho who asked Pérez to work for Cucurella and Bernardo Silva. But there is no doubt that the boss of Real Madrid takes great pleasure in “stealing” recruits from his sworn enemies…
