Marc Cucurella – Spain
Cucurella came through Barcelona’s system and built his senior career with Eibar and Getafe before moving to England. Brighton was his real Premier League breakthrough, and his form there earned a big-money switch to Chelsea in 2022, where he has since won European and world club honours.
Bit of an obvious one this, but he was one of a few World Cup players who featured against the Imps for Chelsea this season. I haven’t included Enzo Fernández, another of the eight Chelsea players featuring in the competition.
Cucurella represented Spain across the youth age groups and won Olympic silver with the under-23s in Tokyo. His senior career properly took off at Euro 2024, where he helped Spain win the tournament and assisted the decisive goal in the final against England.
Spain have Cape Verde first in Atlanta on June 15, then Saudi Arabia at the same stadium six days later. Their group closes against Uruguay in Houston on June 26, which looks the clear headline fixture.
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