Marc Cucurella has barely settled at Real Madrid and he is already talking like someone who wants company. In an interview with Marca, the new Madrid left-back said he would be happy to reunite with Enzo Fernández, his former Chelsea teammate, and made the pitch openly. Real Madrid have won four of their last five matches, while Chelsea have only one win in their last five.

Cucurella's public pitch

Cucurella did not dress it up. "He's a great player and a friend of mine," he told goal.com. "I hope it happens. I would be very happy." He added that both players were happy at Chelsea and that the chance to sign for Real Madrid in the same summer would be a welcome one, before finishing, "I hope he's lucky and becomes a Real Madrid player."

That is about as direct as these things get. It is also a useful reminder that this is not just fan-driven noise, because one of the players involved is now saying the quiet part out loud on the record.

Why the Fernandez rumour still has life

Fernández has fed the speculation himself. He has said, "I really like Madrid – it's similar to Buenos Aires," and answered "Yes, of course" when asked if he could see himself living there. Javier Pastore, his representative, argued that Fernández never said he wanted to leave Chelsea and only spoke about the city of Madrid when he was asked which European city he would like to live in one day.

Chelsea's response has not helped calm things down. The midfielder was dropped for high-profile fixtures against Manchester City and Port Vale after those comments, which is why the chatter around his future has not gone away.

Fernández's recent form is part of the reason the speculation keeps hanging around. He has a 7.15 average rating across his last five matches in the dataset, a solid run that gives any Madrid talk a bit more oxygen than it would otherwise get.

Cucurella's plea does not mean a move is close. It does show that the idea has enough traction for a newly arrived Madrid player to push it in public, and Fernández's own comments have made the story easier to keep alive. For now, it is a pitch, not a transfer, and Chelsea will be the club watching this one most closely.

Written by Daniel Hartley with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 4 outlets. How we work →